Relationship between fatigue parameters and fatigue crack growth in PMMA bone cement

Abstract

Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) bone cement is used to anchor the majority of total joint replacements (TJRs). Many brands of cement are used, both with and without the addition of antibiotics to reduce the risk of infection. The present study involved determination of various parameters in tensile fatigue loading: 1) energy absorbed (U) vs number of loading cycles (N) and creep strain (e) vs N, during fatigue tests on specimens of an antibiotic-containing cement (SmartSet GHV) and a plain cement (CMW1) and 2) crack length (a) vs fatigue loading cycles (N) and crack growth rate (da/dN) vs Mode I stress intensity factor range (DKI), during Fatigue Crack Propagation (FCP) tests. In the fatigue tests, four different sample types (round, machined; round, directly moulded; rectangular, machined, and rectangular, directly moulded) and tensiontension loading were used. In the FCP tests, compact tension specimens under tension-tension loading were used. It was found that there were limited effects of sample type, except at the highest stress levels, but that these two cements had different rates of crack propagation. These differences were reflected in the fracture surfaces with SmartSet GHV showing accumulation of opacifier around the particles and crack progression around the intial beads, while for CMW1 the opacifier was evenly distributed and the cracks went through the initial beads.

Reinforcement and Fatigue of a Bioinspired Mineral–Organic Bioresorbable Bone Adhesive

“…Most of these fatigue property investigations are focused on poly(methyl methacrylate)‐based bone cements, which are frequently used in the clinic but have a major drawback of being nonresorbable. [ 34 ] Several contributions have focused on CPCs, showing the effects of cement porosity and the environment, [ 35 ] cement composition, [ 36 ] and reinforcement [ 37 ] on their fatigue behavior.…”

On fatigue life variability in bone cement

“…Following Equation (2), the equivalent fatigue life, N f(eq) can be written as; where σ a(0) is the reference stress amplitude at which equivalent fatigue life is to be calculated. In past studies on fatigue crack growth rate in bone cement [33-42], values of m were reported to be between 3.60 and 18.20. Therefore, Wilcoxon hypothesis tests were conducted with m values varying between 3.5 and 19.0 for σ a(0) = 15.0 MPa.…”

Progress of antibiotic-loaded bone cement in joint arthroplasty

“…In contrast, cracks either did not appear to propagate or propagated extremely slowly in plain specimens until close to failure, ending with rapid crack propagation. [ 43 ]…”