Attachment of PMMA cement to bone: force measurements in rats

The attachment of an implant material to bone relates to surface roughness and surface chemistry. There is a relatively low chemical bonding strength of so-called bioactive surfaces. Hydroxyapatite interfaces typically have an interfacial tensile strength of 0.15-1.5 MPa. An attachment force similar to that of bioactive surfaces might also be reached through mechanical interlock with ordinary bone cement. This study measured bone cement interfacial tensile strength for polished (R(a) 0.5 microm) and regular (R(a) 4.8 microm) vacuum mixed PMMA bone cement. Bone bonding was evaluated by a detachment test. We used unloaded cement surfaces, which could be detached from the bone. Titanium plates were developed such that a cement fill was contained within a plate, which was contained within a titanium holder. The cement surface came into contact with traumatized bone only, and the rest of the plate had no contact with tissue. The cement surface was either polished or left untreated after conventional preparation. Four weeks later, the plates were detached from the bone by a perpendicular force. The detaching load of the polished cement surface never exceeded 0.07 MPa, whereas for unpolished cement there was a load up to 0.9 MPa. The results suggest that surface irregularities and microinterlock enable an attachment that can resist tension between bone and a cement surface.