Effects of early and late stage cement intrusion into cancellous bone.

Minimizing aseptic loosening of cemented femoral stems in total hip arthroplasty remains a goal. Recent investigation suggests that improved cement intrusion may result from elevated pressures shown to occur during stem placement into higher viscosity late stage polymethylmethacrylate cement when compared with low viscosity early stage cement. The hypothesis tested is that placement of a femoral stem in late stage cement can increase cement-bone contact as compared with placement in early stage cement.