BONE CEMENTS IN ORTHOPEDICS AND RHEUMATOL OGY

Acrylic cement has been used for total hip arthroplasts fixation for s everal years. Use of new cements for bony injections or for treatment of fractures is often misunderstood, in spite (or because?) of numerou s paper in non-medical magazines. Acrylic cement continues to be the r eference for bony cements. Most hip arthroplasties are still cemented, with good results in most cases, even after ten years. Other applicat ions of acrylic cement are reported here, especially for percutaneous injection in metastatic vertebral lesions. New hind of cements are now available, especially pastes of carbonated apatite, and beta tricalci um phosphate - monocalcium phosphate monohydrate water mixtures. With this new family of injectable biomaterials we can hope the development of miniinvasive therapies for bone lesions, and first results appear to be very attractive. However continuous improvements of these materi als and rigorous clinical evaluations are need.