Background: Lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS) has been a common disease that make increasing patients suffer from different degrees of low back pain and radicular symptoms. SDSG and CARDS systems are commonly used to classify the disease, and help to make a more detailed treatment plan. The objective of this study is to evaluate the reliability and reproducibility of SDSG and CARDS classifications, and to explore their clinical application value.Methods/Design: All 117 patients with L5/S1 lumbar DS were enrolled. 5 spine surgeons who have certain clinical experience were selected. They determined the classification according to S SDSG and CARDS systems, we used kappa (K) value to check the coefficient consistency for multi-factor and assess the inter- and intra-observer agreement. After 12 weeks, we repeated the analysis.Results: The inter-observer reliability and intra-observer reproducibility of SDSG system were substantial with K values of 0.704 and 0.861, while those of CARDS system were substantial with values of 0.620 and 0.878.Conclusion: SDSG system has better inter-observer reliability in comparison with CARDS system, and though CARDS system is more intuitive and simpler, it is more likely to produce deviations when using it. Since both SDSG and CARDS systems show substantial agreement and have great significance in surgical strategy of L5/S1 lumbar DS, they can be widely used in clinical practice.