Interfacial fracture toughness between bovine cortical bone and cements.

To evaluate the bonding strength of the interfaces within the cemented arthroplasty system, various mechanical tests have been used. Conventional push-out and pull-out tests cannot reveal the actual bonding property of the interface because of the significant influence of surface roughness on the measured adhesion and the failure to account for the mismatch of elastic modulus across the interface. An alternative fracture mechanics approach, which considers the mix of opening and shear modes of the crack tip loading associated with the testing system and the elastic mismatch of materials across the interface, was used to evaluate the bonding ability of various cements. The four-point bend interfacial delamination test by Charalambides et al. (J. Appl. Mech. 56 (1989) 77; Mech. Mater. 8 (1990) 269) was used to quantify the bonding ability of cements. This method is arguably more suitable since the applied loading mode is comparable to the nature of loading within the prosthetic system, which is primarily bending. The bovine bone specimens were polished to mirror finish to eliminate bonding by mechanical interlocking. The results revealed minimal bonding for the conventional bone cement (PMMA) whereas substantial bonding was evident for the glass-ionomer cements tested. However, only the conventional glass-ionomer cements showed evidence of bonding on testing, while the resin-modified glass-ionomer cement (poly-HEMA) did not. The latter appeared to debond before testing because of excessive expansion stresses associated with swelling in water.

Comparison of failure characteristics of a range of cancellous bone-bone cement composites.

Over the past decade, orthopedic surgery has embraced an increase in the depth of cement penetration into the adjacent cancellous bone structure. The resultant interdigitation transforms this zone into a thick layer of continuous interpenetrating composite material. The failure behavior of the composite formed with a number of potential bone cements with different bonding ability was investigated. The cancellous bone-cement composites exhibit considerable resistance to crack extension, and in situ optical observation indicates that the contribution of the cancellous bone is analogous to that of a typical fiber bridging process. The critical stress intensity factor and the work of fracture have been used to quantify the failure characteristics of the cancellous bone-cement composites. The nature of the crack propagation through these cement-bone composites was also captured via optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscopic images were taken of the failure surfaces. The R-curve behavior, or crack extension characteristic, of the cancellous bone-cement composite was also determined. The interesting outcome is that the cancellous bone-PMMA (poly-methylmethacrylate) composite, despite the absence of chemical bonding with bone, required the highest energy to fracture. In addition, the dimensional stability of the cement has a great effect on the interface.

Time dependence of the mechanical properties of GICs in simulated physiological conditions.

The mechanical properties of glass-ionomer cements (GICs) have been satisfactory for dental applications and have shown their potential in orthopedic surgery. Because the physiological environment in orthopedics is different from dentistry by unavoidable contamination with blood and other fluids such as normal saline used during an operation, the determination of GICs for orthopedic applications should be performed in an appropriate environment. The properties of a novel resin-modified GIC, S430, for orthopedic applications were evaluated in simulated orthopedic conditions by an early exposure to and long-term storage in normal saline. An early exposure to normal saline caused 20-60% reduction of its compressive and flexural properties, whereas long-term storage in normal saline showed slight changes of its mechanical properties. The effects were probably due to the disturbance of the cross-linking formation in the acid-base reaction and also the reduction of electrostatic interactions of the cross-linking polymeric chain of hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) in resin-modified GIC.

Effects of glass ionomer cements on bone tissue.

In vivo biocompatibility of glass ionomer cements (GICs) was evaluated for use in orthopaedic surgery using a rat model and compared with conventional bone cement, Polymethyl methacrylate, PMMA. The unset GICs and PMMA were inserted into the marrow cavities of rat femora and retained in situ for various periods of time. The PMMA bone cement showed complete biocompatibility with no interference with reparative bone. The conventional GIC with smaller glass particles and lower powder/liquid ratio showed an initial minor toxic effect on rat bone tissue with later disturbance of adjacent bone formation. The conventional GIC with larger-size glass particles and higher powder/liquid ratio and resin-modified GIC showed more severe toxic effect on rat tissue with the resin-modified GIC affecting the rat bone tissue later. The causes of toxicity associated with the conventional GIC with larger glass particles and higher powder/liquid ration and the resin-modified GIC are thought to be related with the unreacted acid component of both materials and longer ongoing metallic ion release.

Fracture toughness of bovine bone: influence of orientation and storage media.

Using the single-edge notched bending (SENB) test, two fracture toughness parameters of longitudinal and transverse bovine bone specimens were evaluated: the critical stress intensity factor, Kc, determined from the peak load to initiate fracture, and the energy or work of fracture, Wf, the energy required to extend a crack through a notched specimen. It was found that preservation of bone in alcohol resulted in a 25-45% higher Kc value compared to control specimens stored in physiological saline; whereas the work of fracture, Wf, demonstrated the opposite behaviour, with the alcohol stored specimens having a 28-56% lower value than the saline control specimens. It was established that the effect of alcohol is reversible upon the bone being restored in saline. Consistent with previous studies, it was found that cracks oriented in the longitudinal direction resulted in both a significantly lower fracture toughness and lower work of fracture than those cracks directed transversely. The results are discussed in terms of the proposed deformation and fracture mechanisms known to occur in bone.

Evaluating acrylic and glass-ionomer cement strength using the biaxial flexure test.

Frequently, bone cement strengths are evaluated from uniaxial tests, such as three- or four-point flexure. Measurement of material strength in this manner may not provide an accurate characterisation of a bone cements true load-bearing capacity. In most orthopaedic applications, there exists a state of biaxial stress and so biaxial strength information is most useful. To address this issue, the biaxial flexure strength of two polymethylmethacrylate orthopaedic (PMMA) bone cements and two glass-ionomer dental cements have been determined. The biaxial strength of orthopaedic bone cements have been compared to the three-point bending strength. Furthermore, the calculated theoretical biaxial strength was compared with a value of biaxial strength utilising the finite element method. For all materials tested the calculated biaxial strength is significantly greater than the three-point bending strength. The biaxial test offers several advantages over three-point bending because it critically explores surface flaws--as it does not matter in which orientation the crack lies. However, it does minimise the volume or surface area investigated and also the edge effect. The difference in strength calculated for the two testing methods can be explained quantitatively in terms of the volume of material under stress. This work has demonstrated that the biaxial flexure test can be used for the testing of orthopaedic bone cements.

A simple method of determining the modulus of orthopedic bone cement.

Accurate determination of the elastic modulus of surgical bone cements is of primary importance, when evaluating the stresses within the cement mantle in Total Joint Arthroplasty. This article presents a new method of determining the modulus of surgical bone cements from the biaxial flexural test. The biaxial flexural test is not currently employed in mainstream orthopedic mechanical testing, which is surprising because most loading in orthopedic applications is biaxial in nature. Nor has this method been utilized for dental materials, even though the biaxial flexure test has been used for many years in this field. It has been demonstrated that the modulus of surgical bone cements can be determined from the biaxial flexural test, and these results are in agreement with results from compressive and bending tests.

Comparison of the material properties of PMMA and glass-ionomer based cements for use in orthopaedic surgery.

The intrinsic benefits of low exotherm and bioactivity have generated interest in utilizing glass-ionomer cements (GIC) as a bone cement replacement in orthopaedic surgery. This paper is concerned with evaluating the mechanical properties of compressive strength, flexural strength, and fracture toughness for two traditional GICs, one resin-modified GIC (an experimental bone cement) and two polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) cement systems. To determine the suitability of a GIC system for use in the clinical orthopaedic setting, the additional characteristics of setting exotherm and setting time have also been evaluated. The characterization of these two vastly different cement systems has raised some concern as to the applicability of using the current orthopaedic standards for the testing of GIC systems. In particular, issues relating to the strain rate dependence of PMMA cement and the exothermic basis for determining setting time are not applicable as these factors are not characteristic of GIC systems. Whilst the intrinsic benefits of current GIC systems are well understood and generally accepted, this study has shown their intrinsic mechanical properties to be inferior to current PMMA cements. Improvement in the mechanical properties of traditional GICs have been achieved with the addition of a resin component (HEMA).