The effect of application time of two types of bone cement on the cement-bone interface strength

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the application time of bone cement would have an effect on the cement-bone interface strength in two types of commercially available bone cements. CMW1 Radiopaque(®) (CMW1) and SmartSetHV(®) (SmartSet) were applied to bovine cancellous bone specimens at 2 and at 4 min. Specimens were loaded to failure and the shear strength of the cement-bone interface was calculated. The mean shear strength (±standard deviation) of the cement-bone interface was 2.79 ± 1.29 MPa for CMW1 applied at 2 min; 1.35 ± 0.89 MPa for CMW1 applied at 4 min; 2.93 ± 1.21 MPa for SmartSet applied at 2 min and 3.00 ± 1.11 MPa for SmartSet applied at 4 min. Compared to all other groups, the cement-bone interface strength was significantly lower when CMW1 was applied to the bone specimens at 4 min (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the cement-bone interface strength when SmartSet was applied to bone at 2 and at 4 min. Under these testing conditions, the cement-bone interface strength was not affected by the time of application of SmartSet to bone. However, it was significantly lower when CMW1 was applied to bone at 4 min.