Bone Cement
“Bone cements have been used very successfully to anchor artificial joints (hip joints, knee joints, shoulder and elbow joints) for more than half a century. Artificial joints (referred to as prostheses) are anchored with bone cement. The bone cement fills the free space between the prosthesis and the bone and plays the important role of an elastic zone. This is necessary because the human hip is acted on by approximately 10-12 times the body weight and therefore the bone cement must absorb the forces acting on the hips to ensure that the artificial implant remains in place over the long term.”
“Bone cement chemically is nothing more than Plexiglas (i.e. polymethyl methacrylate or PMMA). PMMA was used clinically for the first time in the 1940s in plastic surgery to close gaps in the skull. Comprehensive clinical tests of the compatibility bone cements with the body were conducted before their use in surgery. The excellent tissue compatibility of PMMA allowed bone cements to be used for anchorage of head prostheses in the 1950s.”
Recent Journal Articles
12/3/2010
Double-Network Interpenetrating Bone Cement via in situ Hybridization Protocol
(pages 3997–4011)Advanced Functional Materials 20 #22 (2010)
Wang et al developed and interpenetrating network by in situ crosslinking polymerization of glycidyl methacrylate derivatized dextran and the synchronous hydration process of calcium phosphate bone cement. The hybrid cement is tunable from stiff-but-not-brittle to ductile-but-not-soft depending on the composition of the double network. (RDC 11/29/2010)