Thin film PMMA precoating for improved implant bone–cement fixation

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Abstract
It has been argued that various specific requirements based on known principles of good adhesion are not being met in the current procedures of formation of the implant–bone cement interface. It has been shown that an annealed thin film PMMA precoating, applied in a low‐contact‐angle form to surgical alloy surfaces devoid of weak boundary layers, satisfies the majority of the requirements during interface formation. Techniques for the application of the precoating have been developed for SS316LVM, Co‐Cr‐Mo, and Ti‐6Al‐4V based on fracture toughness and fatigue tests, and fractography of the interface. Implant surface preparation methods have been established to yield surfaces amenable to adhesive bonding. The composition of the coatings have been studied from the point of view of implant surface wetting, coating roughness and thickness, and interface strength. A biocompatible silane coupling agent (A‐174), currently used in orthodontics, has been introduced to provide saline resistant interfaces. The final precoated metal–bone cement interfaces have demonstrated fracture toughnesses in excess of that of bone cement even after prolonged exposure to 37°C physiological saline. Fatigue tests have shown that the fatigue lives (6.5 MPa) of the precoated metal interfaces in saline are at least twice, and in one case several orders of magnitude greater than, that of the uncoated ones even when the latter are tested dry. Fractography of the interfaces show failures that are entirely cohesive in nature. For the UHMWPE (ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene)‐bone cement interface, similar improvement with precoating, however, could not be attained. Finally, the coated metal–bone cement interfaces have been tested as a function of some clinical variables such as cement type, joining time, clinical contamination, and sterilization procedure. Results show that coated metals exhibit a certain level of insensitivity to these variables and retain their performance under all conditions except after particular repeated sterilizations.

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