Some of the earliest known transplants were autografts of skin as early as 600 BC. Centuries later, Italian surgeon, Gasparo Tagliacozzi was able to successfully perform skin autografts, or transplants from one point to another on the same individual's body, but still experienced rejection in allografts, transplants from one individual to another of the same species. The first successful corneal transplant was performed on a gazelle in 1837, followed by the first thyroid transplant in 1883 by Swiss surgeon Theodore Kocher. Earlier, Kocher had perfected the techniques of removing excess thyroid tissue and was able to remove the whole organ without the patient dying. The thyroid gland soon became the model for other transplants, such as adrenal glands, pancreas, and kidney, and in 1909, Kocher earned a Nobel Prize for his work. 

 

In the early 1900s, French surgeons Alexis Carrel and Charles Guthrie made new progress for transplanting arteries and veins. Alexis Carrel was one of the first to identify problems of rejection in patients. He was awarded a Nobel Prize for medicine in 1912. 

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Peter Medawar made new discoveries in understanding transplant rejection and suggested immunosuppressive drugs be used to stop immune reactions during 1951. However, it wasn't until 1970 that cyclosporine was discovered to be a powerful enough suppressant for surgery. In 1954, the first successful kidney transplant was performed on identical twins by Joseph Murray and J. Hartwell Harrison without immunosuppressant drugs since the twins were genetically identical. Following this, the first successful transplantation of re-attaching a limb and restoring movement and feeling occurred in 1962. 

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Though many new discoveries had been made, surgeons had yet to discover ways to transplant the human heart, since the heart is useless within minutes of death. The development of a heart-lung machine would be needed if the surgery was to be successful. The first semi-successful heart transplant was in 1967 by Christiaan Barnaard in South Africa, but the recipient survived for only 18 days. His second patient lived for 19 months. The first truly successful heart-lung transplant occurred on March 9, 1981 at Stanford University Hospital, performed by Bruce Reitz who credited the success to cyclosporine, which had been able to turn transplants into life-saving surgery.

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Because of the success rate of transplants and the use of immunosuppressants, transplantation has become much more common. Organs can now be supplied by living donors, but the need for organs is still substantial. Recently, there is research for transgenic, or genetically engineered, organs, but they have not being used in humans yet. New drugs are also underway for developments in transplantation.