Determination of mechanical properties of impacted human morsellized cancellous allografts for revision joint arthroplasty.

This paper deals with the characterization of mechanical properties of impacted morsellized cancellous allograft (IMCA) produced by dynamic compaction of allograft femoral heads ground by commercially available bone mills, i.e. rotating rasp and reciprocating type bone mills. Various ranges and profiles of particle size in the graft aggregates were obtained using these bone mills, and the effect of number of compaction as well as the distribution of particle sizes on the mechanical properties of IMCA under quasistatic compression and shear loading conditions was discussed. The morsellized cancellous allograft prepared by the reciprocating type bone mill showed a broad distribution of particle sizes, and gave IMCA superior mechanical properties to the graft with a more uniform size distribution, or prepared by the rotating rasp type bone mills. The increase of number of compaction also improved the mechanical properties of IMCA in compression. Copyright 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers