Disc Replacement Success Rates

To determine Disc Replacement Surgery success rates first we should ask, how do we define success?

If the patient has a perfect surgery without complications this could be considered a successful disc replacement surgery. The surgery has restored the disc height it has decompressed all the nerves and prevented future paralysis. So, the disc replacement was a success, right?

Disc Replacement Surgeon Dr. Ritter-Lang and his team have 100% success since using the Spinal Kinetics Disc Replacement implant. No device failures, removals, migrations or complications that resulted in permanent damage or disability.

Previous artificial disc replacement implants resulted in from 4-8% reoperation for device subsidence or migration. This concern has all but been eliminated with the Spinal Kinetics M6 Disc Replacement.

We must also understand that the statistics include all patients and for some disc replacement surgery was their last hope or they had other surgeries prior. The younger, healthier, single-level patients without previous surgeries will do better and heal faster than many other patients. How fast, how much better depends and how much pain relief depends on many factors. Of course  how skilled the surgeon is greatly effects disc replacement success rates. Success rates will vary widely by surgeon, look for experience. The best hope for a patient is to find a surgeon with peer verified results.

See Spinal Kinetics Disc Replacement Study.

Artificial disc replacement is not a new surgical procedure yet it may be new to many surgeons. Any surgeon can legally do a disc replacement procedure and some begin doing the procedure after a two-day course. These surgeons’ success rates become part of the world-wide success rate of the procedure.


Artificial Disc Replacement in the hands of skilled and experienced surgeon will have a much higher success rate than less experienced surgeons.

Patient’s expectations also play a role in disc replacement success rate scoring. While the vast majority of our patients report a successful pain free outcome from disc replacement surgery if a 65 year old patient who has suffered from back pain most their life and had several surgeries, expects their post op spine to feel like it did when there were younger they may end up disappointed.