A modified PMMA cement (Sub-cement) for accelerated fatigue testing of cemented implant constructs using cadaveric bone

Pre-clinical screening of cemented implant systems could be improved by modeling the longer-term response of the implant/cement/bone construct to cyclic loading. We formulated bone cement with degraded fatigue fracture properties (Sub-cement) such that long-term fatigue could be simulated in short-term cadaver tests. Sub-cement was made by adding a chain-transfer agent to standard polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) cement. This reduced the molecular weight of the inter-bead matrix without changing reaction-rate or handling characteristics. Static mechanical properties were approximately equivalent to normal cement. Over a physiologically reasonable range of stress-intensity factor, fatigue crack propagation rates for Sub-cement were higher by a factor of 25±19. When tested in a simplified 2 1/2-D physical model of a stem–cement–bone system, crack growth from the stem was accelerated by a factor of 100. Sub-cement accelerated both crack initiation and growth rate. Sub-cement is now being evaluated in full stem/cement/femur models.