Fatigue-fractured surfaces of commercial bone cements

Acrylic bone cements have been widely used in orthopaedic surgery for the fixation of artificial joints. In total cemented hip prosthesis, the fracture of PMMA is of serious concern since it is linked to failure of the implant. (Topoleski et al. 1993). In the present study, cyclic fatigue fractured surfaces of six commercial bone cements were investigated using two methods: roughness measurement and a count of cleaved pre cured beads. The same surfaces were also, inspected by scanning electron microscope (SEM) for crack propagation patterns.