The Clinical Significance of Vacuum Mixing Bone Cement

Influence of femoral stem surface finish on the apparent static shear strength at the stem–cement interface

“…It is generally accepted that long term durability of cemented THR requires meticulous attention to three elements and two interfaces, which are femoral stem, Great effort has been made to investigate the factors influencing the bond strength at the stem-cement interface, such as increasing stem surface roughness (Chen et al, 1998;Lennon et al, 2003;Ohashi et al, 1998), pre-coating the stem (Fischer et al, 2001;Morita et al, 1997) and utilising "modern cementing techniques" (Geiger et al, 2001;Mulroy Jr. and Harris, 1990). The optimum surface finish of the femoral stem has been the focus of controversy for a long time, mainly concentrating on whether matt stems could accomplish permanent fixation during their in vivo service (Alfaro-Adrian et al, 2001;Shen, 1998).…”

Effects of the initial temperature of acrylic bone cement liquid monomer on the properties of the stem–cement interface and cement polymerization

“…Interfacial porosity has several characteristics: It is substantially different from porosity within the cement mantle; it is not reduced by vacuum mixing or centrifugation; it appears and accumulates at the stem-cement interface, resulting in decreased contact area between stem and cement mantle; it initiates crack formation from the interface resulting in interface debonding and cement mantle failure; it is developed by polymerization shrinkage of bone cement, while porosity within the cement mantle originates from entrapped air bubbles. [7][8][9][10][11] The only technique reported in the literature to reduce the interfacial porosity is stem preheating. This was originally introduced by Dall et al 12 to shorten polymerization time and found by Bishop et al 8 to reduce interfacial porosity.…”

Efficacy of vacuum bone cement mixing systems in reducing methylmethacrylate fume exposureComparison of 7 different mixing devices and handmixing

“…Vacuum mixing of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) bone cement is advocated to reduce voids and porosity within the cement mantle, which are suspected to contribute to crack development and prosthesis failure or loosening (Lidgren et al 1987, Wixson et al 1987, Geiger et al 2001. The vacuum mixing devices are connected to specific suction units and are thus also expected to minimise exposure to methylmethacrylate (MMA) monomer fumes evaporating during the mixing procedure (Darre et al 1988, Bettencourt et al 2001.…”