A methodology and criterion for acrylic bone cement fatigue tests

Acrylic bone cement is used as a fixing device in total hip arthroplasty and it is based on polymethyl-methacrylate. Fatigue failure of the cement is the primary cause of loosening of cemented arthroplasties. Pores form in the acrylic material during mixing and curing, and an analysis of the fatigue life of the cement requires the elimination of the critical macropores, defined as having a diameter > 1 mm, which may bias the outcome of tests. Previous workers have rejected fatigue specimens either on a qualitative basis or at a specified pore size level. However various different thresholds have been considered but currently there is no quantitative criterion to define them. This investigation proposes a quantitative criterion for establishing a critical macropore size rejection threshold for fatigue specimens, and discusses the effectiveness of this criterion based on fatigue tests of radiopaque cement specimens.

[1]  W. Maloney,et al.  Ingrowth of bone in failed fixation of porous-coated femoral components. , 1991, The Journal of bone and joint surgery. American volume.

[2]  P Ducheyne,et al.  A fractographic analysis of in vivo poly(methyl methacrylate) bone cement failure mechanisms. , 1990, Journal of biomedical materials research.

[3]  P. Ducheyne,et al.  The effects of centrifugation and titanium fiber reinforcement on fatigue failure mechanisms in poly(methyl methacrylate) bone cement. , 1995, Journal of biomedical materials research.

[4]  L. Gilbertson,et al.  Micromechanisms of fatigue crack initiation and propagation in bone cements. , 1995, Journal of biomedical materials research.

[5]  R. J. Crawford,et al.  Some fatigue characteristics of thermoplastics , 1975 .

[6]  R. Huiskes,et al.  Mechanical failure of cemented femoral total hip replacement , 1995 .

[7]  K. H. Chan,et al.  Fatigue of acrylic bone cement--effect of frequency and environment. , 1989, Journal of biomedical materials research.

[8]  G. Lewis,et al.  Properties of acrylic bone cement: state of the art review. , 1997, Journal of biomedical materials research.

[9]  S. Lohr.  Statistics (2nd Ed.) , 1994 .

[10]  L. Dias,et al.  Musculoskeletal problems in association with cloacal exstrophy. , 1991, The Journal of bone and joint surgery. American volume.

[11]  G. Lewis,et al.  Mechanical properties of vacuum-mixed acrylic bone cement. , 1994, Journal of applied biomaterials : an official journal of the Society for Biomaterials.

[12]  W. Harris,et al.  Influence of antibiotic impregnation on the fatigue life of Simplex P and Palacos R acrylic bone cements, with and without centrifugation. , 1989, Journal of biomedical materials research.

[13]  W. Krause,et al.  Fatigue properties of acrylic bone cement: S-N, P-N, and P-S-N data. , 1988, Journal of biomedical materials research.

[14]  W H Harris,et al.  Centrifugation as a method of improving tensile and fatigue properties of acrylic bone cement. , 1984, The Journal of bone and joint surgery. American volume.

[15]  W H Harris,et al.  In vitro measurement of strain in the bone cement surrounding the femoral component of total hip replacements during simulated gait and stair‐climbing , 1996, Journal of orthopaedic research : official publication of the Orthopaedic Research Society.