POSTED: 5:54 p.m. PDT August 27, 2003

Micki Flowers
KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Health Reporter

An experimental surgery could one day revolutionize treatment for people who suffer from chronic back pain.

If you've never had back pain, chances are you will. Experts say it's second only to headaches as the most frequent pain complaint.

For years, fusion has been an answer. Now, in an experimental surgery, doctors have implanted an Indiana man with an artificial disc in his lower back.

Until two weeks ago, Ron Supinger could barely move. He's suffered horrible pain for years from a degenerating disc in his back. He tried many therapies, but nothing helped.

MORE ON THIS STORY More on the trial from spinecore.com Oregon Health Sciences University Back Pain Info from NIH

For the first time in North America, doctors used a device to surgically replace the offending disc in Ron's lower spine. It's a metal-on-metal disc with a ball and socket joint.

It's a dramatic departure from traditional spinal fusion. In that procedure, doctors select from a number of methods to fuse the vertebrae together.

But recovery can take three to four months and patients lose flexibility.

Ron Supinger surprised his doctors with the speed of his recovery.

"After the surgery, I had zero pain in the back. Of course, I had the incisional pain, which was normal, where they had to open me up. And I was up and walking around getting ready to go home in less than 48 hours, with zero pain," Supinger said.

It will be years before the new surgery is widely available.

Twenty hospitals across the country will be testing it in a clinical trial, with the closest site in Portland.

Artificial discs are also being tested to replace discs in the neck.