Objectives: Is to present the short term outcome of lumbar Artificial Disc Replacement in the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, UK.

Design: Review of literature and the short term outcome.

Summary of background data: The mainstay of surgical treatment for discogenic low back pain has been spinal fusion for many decades. The outcome of fusion procedures has been somewhat unpredictable and is linked with some limitation in the activities related to spinal motion.

Recently and in the last few years a relatively new procedure was introduced to spinal surgery practice which is the artificial disc replacement, the potential benefit of which is to relief back pain as well as keeping the spinal motion.

In this study, we are reporting our early experience in the results and short term outcome of lumbar artificial disc replacement done on 26 patients in The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital

Methods: The 26 cases were operated upon in the duration between 1996 and 2003. We used artificial disc replacement.

Results: Our results based on ODSS and the VAS were good to excellent with patient satisfaction of about 87%

Conclusion: The Artificial disc replacement procedure in the lumbar and lumbosacral region is promising in short term outcome , however the long term results should be carefully evaluated.