Relationship between fracture toughness and impact strength of acrylic bone cement

This work involved determining the fracture toughness, KIc (in MPa(square root)m) (using rectangular compact tension specimens) and impact strength, IS (in kJ/m2) (Charpy type specimens) of Surgical Simplex P and three variants of Palacos R acrylic bone cements. The best fit to these results yielded a power relationship KIc = 0.795(IS)0.59. The usefulness of this relationship is detailed, especially for the purpose of performing quality control checks on bone cements.