Abstract
Purpose of the Study
This study aims at investigating the effect of application time of bone cement on the cement-bone interface strength in two types of commercially available bone cements, Cement-A and Cement-B.
Materials and methods
Cement-A and Cement-B were applied to cancellous bone specimens at two different times; 2 and 4 minutes (min). The bone specimens were formulated from bovine bone. Specimens were loaded to failure and the force at which the cement-bone interface failed was recorded. The shear strength of the cement-bone interface was calculated by dividing the force at failure by the cross-sectional surface area of the cement-bone interface.
Results
The mean (± standard deviation) and median (inter-quartile range) shear strength of the cement-bone interface was 2.79 ± 1.29 MPa and 2.29 (2.34) MPa for Cement-A applied at 2 min; 1.35 ± 0.89 MPa and 1.35 (1.74) MPa for Cement-A applied at 4 min; 2.93 ± 1.21 MPa and 3.01 (2.61) MPa for Cement-B applied at 2 min; and 3.00 ± 1.11 MPa and 2.92 (1.61) MPa for Cement-B applied at 4 min. Compared to all other groups, the cement-bone interface strength was significantly lower when Cement-A was applied to the bone specimens at 4 min (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the cement-bone interface strength when Cement-B was applied to bone at 2 and at 4 min.
Conclusions
Under these testing conditions, the cement-bone interface strength did not seem to be affected by the time of application of Cement-B to bone. However, it was significantly lower when Cement-A was applied to bone at 4 min.
