Steve Jobs, the co-founder and chief executive of Apple, has an "excellent prognosis" after receiving a liver transplant at a Tennessee hospital, the doctor in charge has confirmed.

Dr James D. Eason, the chief of transplantation at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis, said that Mr Jobs was in end-stage liver disease when he received the transplant.

"He received a liver transplant because he was . . . the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available. Mr Jobs is now recovering well," he said.

The statement confirms a report in The Wall Street Journal last week that Mr Jobs, the charismatic head of Apple, had a liver transplant two months ago after treatment for pancreatic cancer.

He is reported to have returned to work yesterday, having been on medical leave since early January.

Apple had said that he was due to return at the end of this month. Mr Jobs was seen by several people at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, and is expected to return on a part-time basis.

In early January Mr Jobs said that he was suffering from a "hormone imbalance”. Less than a week later, he said that his health issues were “more complex than I originally thought” and that he was taking medical leave for six months, putting Tim Cook, the chief operating officer, in charge of day-to-day operations.

The hospital's unusual statement, released with Mr Jobs's approval, came after some speculation that he may have used his wealth or status to obtain a liver transplant ahead of other sufferers.

The statement said: "Mr Jobs underwent a complete transplant evaluation and was listed for transplantation for an approved indication in accordance with the Transplant Institute policies and United Network for Organ Sharing (Unos) policies.

"He received a liver transplant because he was the patient with the highest MELD score (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) of his blood type and, therefore, the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available. Mr Jobs is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis.

"The Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute performed 120 liver transplants in 2008, making it one of the ten largest liver transplant centres in the United States. We provide transplants to patients regardless of race, sex, age, financial status, or place of residence," it said.

The statement added: "Our one-year patient and graft survival rates are among the best in the nation and were a dominant reason in Mr Jobs’s choice of transplant centres. We respect and protect every patient's private health information and cannot reveal any further information on the specifics of Mr Jobs's case."

The state of Mr Jobs’s health has been a source of intense speculation and shareholder interest since he was treated for a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004. Apple, which refused to disclose details on the state of his health while he was on medical leave, has refused to comment.

Investors have wrestled with the implications of Mr Jobs's illness since August 2004, when investors learnt that the chief executive, credited with turning the company into a global brand of technological innovation, had kept a cancer diagnosis secret until after he underwent surgery. The company's past silence on matters of Mr Jobs' health made shareholders jittery when he appeared increasingly thin last year.

Investors sent the stock down 5 per cent to its lowest point in a year on a rumour last October that Jobs had suffered a heart attack. Apple shares sank 7 per cent when he said that he would be taking six months off because of medical problems.

Since then confidence has returned and Apple's stock price has risen more than 50 per cent in the past six months as investors saw that it was "business as usual" at the company in Mr Jobs's absence and Apple continued its run of successful launches of hardware and software products. Last week it launched a new iPhone and sold more one million of the iPhone 3GS handsets within three days, surpassing expectations.

Mr Jobs was quoted in an Apple press release on Monday about the new iPhone’s strong sales — his first public comment in months, underscoring rumours of his return. "Customers are voting, and the iPhone is winning," he said.

News of the liver transplant has hit the stock price. Since Monday morning's high of $140.91, it fell to $134.01 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange.

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