Disintegration of bone cement by continuous and pulsating water jet

The paper deals with the study of using continuous water jet and ultrasonic pulsating water jet for bone cement disintegration. Bone-cement Pallacos R+G (manually mixed) was disintegrated ex-vivo. Mechanical properties of the bone cement were determined by nano-indentation. Factors employed in evaluation were pressure (40, 80, 120) MPa and traverse speed for continuous water jet, pressure (8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20) MPa and orifice type (flat, circular) for ultrasonic pulsating water jet. Depth penetration h (mm) was measured by non-contact optical profilometer MicroProf FRT. Results represent the first step towards feasibility of using effective water jet technique during reimplantation of cemented endoprosthesis, for bone cement removal from femoral canal without heat and mechanical damage of surrounding tissue.