Correlation between impact strength and fracture toughness of PMMA-based bone cements

The thrust of the work involved determining the impact strength, IS (in kJ m−2) [using non-ASTM-sized Charpy-type specimens and an in-house impact tester] and fracture toughness, KIc (in MPa√m) [using ASTM-sized rectangular compact tension specimens] of Surgical Simplex® P and three variants of Palacos® R acrylic bone cements. The attractions and drawbacks of this method for determining IS are detailed. The best fit to the KIc and IS results yielded a power relationship KIc=0.795(IS)0.59.The usefulness and limitations of this relationship are detailed.