Australian doctors have performed an extremely rare operation by successfully transplanting a "dead heart" into a 57-year-old woman, according to a report by the BBC. 

A "dead heart" is essentially a heart that has already stopped beating inside an organ donor's chest. 

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Heart transplants have always required a beating heart that's removed from dying patients - in most cases removed from a brain-dead donor - and then put on ice until it can be placed into its new body. However, this wasn't the case with doctors in Australia.

After removing the heart, which had already stopped beating from the donor, doctors then reportedly put it in a machine called a "heart-in-a-box."

By pumping warm blood into the heart, the machine was able to revive it, allowing the heart to start beating once again. The doctors then successfully placed the warm heart from the machine into the patient.

"We removed blood from the donor to prime the machine," cardiologist Peter MacDonald said. "We then take the heart out, connect it to the machine, warm it up, and when we warm it up, the heart starts to beat."

The first heart transplant using this technique was done just a couple months ago, and since then there has also been two more successful operations done.

This technique is still very new so don't expect to be able to go through with the operation at your local hospital just yet. However, it's a remarkable step in the right direction.

Furthermore, the process reportedly reduces the amount of heart cells that die when being transplanted with other techniques that are traditionally used - making it a safer alternative.

The technique could very well soon end the requirement for beating hearts in brain-dead patients, which would essentially drastically increase the number of available hearts for transplants.

Tagsheart transplant, organ donor, dead heart, Cardiology