The bone-cement interface temperature during total joint replacement.

Sets of thermoprobe measurements of the temperature of the bone-cement interface were made during twenty total joint-replacement procedures. Although the range of rise in temperature was wide, from 3 to 17 degrees centigrade, the highest temperature obtained was 48 degrees centigrade, which is well below the denaturation point (56 degrees centigrade) of proteins. Several factors, such as the presence of blood and moisture at the interface and the large surface area and poor heat conductivity of methylmethacrylate, prevent the interface from experiencing the high rise in temperature that occurs at the center of the polymerizing cement mass.