Abstract
1. A pathological study has been made of eight femurs containing acrylic Judet type prostheses, in patients who had died two to thirteen weeks after arthroplasty.
2. Haemorrhage occurs into the tunnel and into a limited zone of the spongy bone around the tunnel. Organisation of the blood clot is evident at two weeks and new bone formation appears shortly afterwards. At eight weeks the tunnel is lined by a fibrous membrane. Further fibrosis and new bone growth tend to establish a new surface, healing the wound in the bone and sequestrating the foreign body.
3. There is no evidence that the intact methyl-methacrylate appliance had exerted any toxic action on the tissues.