Effect of methylene blue on the fracture toughness of acrylic bone cement.

It has been advocated that the use of contrast acrylic bone cement (namely, a cement in which a suitable additive is included) for the fixation of a cemented arthroplasty will facilitate its revision (should this be necessary). It is useful, therefore, to determine the extent to which each of the relevant mechanical properties of the cement is affected by the presence of such an additive. It is shown, in the present work, that the addition of one contrast agent (an aqueous methylene blue solution) to a cement has no statistically significant effect on its mode-I plane-strain fracture toughness. This strengthens the case for the use of contrast cement for the aforementioned application.