Calcium Phosphate Bone Cements Reinforced with Biodegradable Polymer Fibres for Drug Delivery

Abstract

Conventional calcium phosphate bone cements are self setting water based pastes. Recently pre-mixed calcium phosphate bone cements have been proposed that have non-aqueous fluid as liquid phase of the paste. Such cements thus only start setting reaction in contact with body fluids. In this work the properties (cohesion, compressive strength, phase composition) of pre-mixed calcium phosphate cements based on α-tricalcium phosphate and calcium dihydrogen phosphate monohydrate are described. Properties of several cement compositions are examined and compared to properties of β-tricalcium phosphate and calcium dihydrogen phosphate monohydrate based cements. It was found that α-tricalcium phosphate and calcium dihydrogen phosphate monohydrate based cements have higher compressive strength (10 - 15 MPa) than corresponding β-tricalcium phosphate and calcium dihydrogen phosphate monohydrate based cements (10 - 6 MPa). Out of examined cement paste liquids (glycerol, polyethylene glycol and polypropylene glycol) cements using glycerol as the liquid phase had higher compressive strength and are more cohesive.