Study the effect of polymerization temperature in the release of antibiotic from bone cement.

Antibiotic-loaded bone cement is widely used to treat musculoskeletal infections. Here we tested whether the curing temperature affected pore size of the cement and antibiotic release. Bone cement containing vancomycin was cured at 3 temperatures (50, 25 and 0°C). The solidified vancomycin-loaded cement was stored for 1-week at 25 and 5°C and then assayed for antibiotic release. We found that a significantly higher proportion of vancomycin was released from cement cured at 0°C versus that cured at 50°C, and that lower storage temperature also increased antibiotic release.