Creep dominates tensile fatigue damage of the cement-bone interface.

Fatigue damage from activities of daily living has been considered to be a major cause of aseptic loosening in cemented total hip arthroplasty. The cement-bone interface is one region where loosening could occur, but to date the fatigue response of the interface has not been examined. Cement-bone specimens were prepared from fresh frozen human cadaver tissue using simulated in vivo conditions. Tensile fatigue tests to failure were performed in an environmental chamber. Loss of specimen stiffness (stiffness damage) and permanent displacement after unloading (creep damage) were found in all specimens. At failure, creep damage accounted for the majority (79.9+/-10.6%) of the total strain damage accumulation at failure (apparent strain, epsilon=0.0114+/-0.00488). A power law relationship between strain-damage rate and time-to-failure showed that the strain-damage rate was an excellent predictor of the fatigue life of the cement-bone interface. The S-N response of the interface was obtained as a function of the applied stress ratio and the initial apparent strain. The total motion between cement and bone (72.2+/-29.8 microm) prior to incipient failure due to both stiffness and creep fatigue damage may be sufficient to result in fibrous tissue formation and contribute to eventual clinical loosening.