Comparison of the fatigue characteristics of centrifuged and uncentrifuged simplex P bone cement

Abstract

Fatigue test specimens of Simplex P bone cement (Howmedica Inc., Rutherford, NJ) prepared according to the manufacturer's instructions and specimens of Simplex P prepared by centrifuging the cement immediately after mixing were subjected to fully reversed tension‐compression fatigue tests at initial strain levels ranging from 0.01 to 0.001. S:N curves for both cement preparations were generated and compared on the basis of regression analysis, Weibull analysis, and Student's t tests. Centrifuged Simplex P was able to withstand significantly more fatigue cycles than uncentrifuged Simplex P at all strain levels tested. Importantly, at the more physiologic strain levels of 2,000 and 1,000 microstrain, the centrifuged cement demonstrated superior fatigue life. Specifically, at the 1,000‐microstrain level eight of the 11 uncentrifuged specimens fractured before undergoing 10 million cycles. Of those that failed, the average number of cycles to failure was 1.8 million with a range of 560,000 to 4 million cycles. In contrast, all 11 centrifuged specimens tested at 1,000 microstrain remained intact at 10 million cycles.