Abstract
New prosthetic nucleus which consisted of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) jacket and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel core was prepared and studied. The hydrogels with similar size were encased in polyethylene jacket of different dimension. Studies indicate that with the decrease of jacket dimension, swelling time of prosthetic nucleus increases, the equilibrium water content and volume change ratio decrease. Differential Scanning Caborimetry (DSC) analysis shows that increasing the jacket dimension results in a slight increase of non-freezable bond water and significant increase in free water. The prosthetic nucleus with larger jacket has better stress relaxation property due to the plasticization of non-freezable water. These results suggest that the dimension ratio of jacket to core at 1.19-1.35 is the most suitable for artificial nucleus pulposus
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