Porous acrylic cement: evaluation of a novel implant material.

The preparation and some properties of in situ curing porous acrylic cement, a modification of the traditional bone cement, are described. Through numerous animal experiments, the behavior of the porous cement in a biological environment has been studied. The histological evaluation reveals that hard and soft tissues readily grow into the pores of the cement, thus anchoring the implant to the host tissues. Some inflammatory foci, decreasing in number with residence time, together with varying numbers of multinucleated giant cells were found occasionally in the tissues in and around implants. When implanted in soft tissues, the porous cement behaved favorably with respect to solid acrylic implants because of the immobility of the implants and the absence of ectopic hard tissue formation. The biocompatibility of porous acrylic cement is judged to justify clinical trials in plastic and reconstructive surgery.