Adhesive bone cement both to bone and metals: 4‐META in MMA initiated with tri‐n‐butyl borane

In order to develop a new bone cement which is expected to prevent loosening of a prosthesis by better adhesion, the cement composed of 4-methacryloyloxyethyl trimellitate anhydride (4-META) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) as monomers and tri-n-butyl borane (TBB) as an initiator was evaluated. The tensile bond strength between bone and metals adhered with 4-META/MMA-TBB cement was above 7 MPa. The values were higher than that with conventional bone cement (1 MPa) or MMA-TBB cement (2 MPa). Therefore, 4-META was effective for improving adhesion. When cohesive failure of the bone was observed with the scanning electron micrography after the tensile test, fracture occurred on the bone side below the interface between the bone and the 4-META/MMA-TBB cement. This result showed that the cement adhered tightly to both the bone and metals. Thus, it is concluded that the 4-META/MMA-TBB cement is useful as an adhesive bone cement.