Materials and Methods

For the experimental determination bone substitute blocks (100 × 100 × 50 mm) made of polymethacrylimide (PMI) foam with a density of 7 pcf were used. The created acetabular defect situations were derived from the defect classification according to Paprosky. The defect geometries in the PMI foam blocks were realised by a CNC drilling machine. Thereby the defects are described in the dorso-ventral direction by the angle α and in medio-lateral direction by the angle β (given as angle combination α/β) related to the centre of rotation of the reamed cavity. For the lever-out tests the defect types IIb and IIIa (each with different α and β angles) were considered and compared to the intact fixation situation. Therefore, a macrostructured titanium cup (Allofit, Zimmer GmbH, Wintherthur, Switzerland) with an outer diameter of 56 mm were displacement-controlled (v = 20 mm/min) pushed into the 2 mm diametric under reamed PMI-foam cavities. Three cups were inserted until the cup overhang pursuant to surgical technique was reached. Subsequently the cups were displacement-controlled (v = 20 mm/min) levered out via a rod which was screwed into the implant pole by perpendicular displacement (U_axial) of the rod in direction of the defect aperture. The lever-out moments were calculated by multiplying the first occurring force maximum (F_max) with the effective lever arm length (l_lever), whereby moments caused by the deadweight of the rod were considered. Primary stability was defined by the first maximum lever-out moment.