Interfacial fracture toughness between bovine cortical bone and cements

To evaluate the bonding strength of the interfaces within the cemented arthroplasty system, various mechanical tests have been used. Conventional push-out and pull-out tests cannot reveal the actual bonding property of the interface because of the significant influence of surface roughness on the measured adhesion and the failure to account for the mismatch of elastic modulus across the interface. An alternative fracture mechanics approach, which considers the mix of opening and shear modes of the crack tip loading associated with the testing system and the elastic mismatch of materials across the interface, was used to evaluate the bonding ability of various cements. The four-point bend interfacial delamination test by Charalambides et al. (J. Appl. Mech. 56 (1989) 77; Mech. Mater. 8 (1990) 269) was used to quantify the bonding ability of cements. This method is arguably more suitable since the applied loading mode is comparable to the nature of loading within the prosthetic system, which is primarily bending. The bovine bone specimens were polished to mirror finish to eliminate bonding by mechanical interlocking. The results revealed minimal bonding for the conventional bone cement (PMMA) whereas substantial bonding was evident for the glass-ionomer cements tested. However, only the conventional glass-ionomer cements showed evidence of bonding on testing, while the resin-modified glass-ionomer cement (poly-HEMA) did not. The latter appeared to debond before testing because of excessive expansion stresses associated with swelling in water.