The effect of post-curing chemical changes on the mechanical properties of acrylic bone cement

✍ Scribed by J. L. Hailey; I. G. Turner; A. W. Miles; G. Price

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 466 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0957-4530
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00120342

✦ Synopsis

Total joint replacement is a procedure which gives pain relief and renewed mobility to over 50000 people each year in the UK alone. While offering new hope to many of these people, approximately 10% of these prostheses fail within 10 years. It is thought that cement fracture could be one cause of the failure of the implant. This study was primarily concerned with the effect of storage environment and time period on the work of fracture of Simplex P bone cement. It was found that the storage conditions had a significant influence on the work of fracture of bone cement. In particular, storage at body temperatures embrittled the cement, while storage in fluid media had a plasticizing effect. These trends were related to post-curing chemical changes within the cement mass, specifically the absorption of low molecular mass species from the storage environments, and the leaching of residual monomer from the cement.