Modified acrylic bone cement with high amounts of ethoxytriethyleneglycol methacrylate

One cause of arthroplasty failure is the brittle mechanical behavior of bone cements. However, the improvement of cement formulations must also be accompanied by the maintenance of a wide variety of characteristics. New bone cements were obtained by the substitution of high percentages, up to 60% (v/v), of methyl methacrylate (MMA) by a higher molecular weight and more hydrophilic monomer, ethoxytriethyleneglycol methacrylate (TEG). The essential advantages of these materials were the decrease of maximum temperature together with a decrease in the residual monomer content with respect to conventional cement formulations. The water absorption process obeyed diffusion laws and the equilibrium water content increased by the introduction of higher percentages of the hydrophilic component. This characteristic had an appreciable effect on the viscoelastic behavior analyzed by DMTA. These modified bone cements had reduced polymerization shrinkage and similar levels of porosity. Tensile test revealed that the introduction of TEGMA gave rise to an important modification of the mechanical behavior, with a noticeable increase in the fracture strain. This fact was also confirmed by means of the analysis of the fracture surfaces by SEM.