| The use of poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) based bone cement as a grouting agent for the in-vivo fixation of orthopaedic implants has been in practice for nearly fifty years. Fatigue failure of the bone cement has been identified as the primary cause of cement failure. Implant loosening due to the failure of the cement is one of the major reasons necessitating revision surgery. The need for a more fatigue resistant bone cement is well documented in the literature. One method of producing a more fatigue resistant bone cement is to reinforce it with short fibers.; The fundamental purpose of this work was to investigate the possible improvement of the fatigue characteristics of bone cement provided by the following two types of fiber reinforcements: short flexible Polyethylene Terephalate (PET) fibers and stiff milled carbon fibers. It has been shown that the reinforcement of the bone cement with fibers provides substantial improvement of the fracture toughness of the bone cement. In this investigation the impact of fiber reinforcement on the fatigue properties of the bone cement was studied.; The effects of the fiber reinforcement on the fatigue life of bone cement has been determined experimentally. Since fatigue characteristics are known to have considerable scatter, a methodology was developed to analyze the experimental data in a statistically rigorous manner. The effect of the fiber reinforcement on bone cement was also analyzed using a theoretical approach and by conducting extensive Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) of the fractured surfaces.; The results of this study indicate that fiber reinforcement improves the fatigue life of bone cement at a very high level of reliability. This could potentially lead to a more fatigue tolerant bone cement, which would delay the need for revision surgery due to implant loosening. |
