Biomet Cement and Cementing Systems

Vacuum Mixing & Delivery

Importance of Vacuum Mixing Systems

The development and the use of cementation systems are oriented around three concerns:

Improving cement quality
Improving cementation technique
Working safely and legally with MMA

1. Improving cement quality
Cement porosity directly affects its fatigue behaviour. Reducing the number of pores can lead to remarkable improvements in cement strength and fatigue life. Several methods have been introduced in the interest of reducing cement porosity, the most efficient of which is applying vacuum throughout the mixing and collecting of the cement.

2. Improving cementation technique
It is not possible to adequately fill, for example, the femoral canal by finger packing the cement. By using a vacuum mixing and delivery system and injecting the bone cement in retrograde fashion, a better and more consistent fill of the femoral canal is achieved. ^13,14

The Swedish Total Hip Register has shown that retrograde filling of the femur greatly reduces the risk of revision.¹⁵

3. Working safely and legally with MMA
It is known that the adverse effects of working with MMA include irritation of the respiratory system and skin contact sensitivity.

Most of the modern mixing systems reduce monomer levels in the OR to less than 10 mg/m³. In most countries maximal exposure limits exist for handling of MMA in technical production. (Such typical legal level is 200 mg/m³.)

MMA exposure levels in the UK⁹