Turkish surgeons have performed the world's first-ever quadruple limb transplant at a university hospital in Ankara, the Anatolia news agency reported on Saturday.

"In such a big organ transplant... more than 50 percent of the (patient's) body has changed," Professor Murat Tuncer, rector of Ankara's Hacettepe University, told Anatolia.

"The blood and plasma defusion are still continuing for our patient to overcome the critical next 24 hours," he said.

Health Minister Recep Akdag congratulated the surgeons who carried out the high-risk operation. "All my friends... really did a good job. I'd like to thank all of them on behalf of the Turkish people," he told Anatolia.

The operation comes on the heels of the country's first-ever face transplant at another Turkish university hospital.

Last month, a team of doctors at Akdeniz University in the southern city of Antalya successfully performed the operation on a 19-year-old boy whose face was burned when he was a 40-day-old baby. (AFP)