Abstract
Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is a surgery to replace the damaged surface of knee joint with a prosthesis. In the surgery, polymethylmethacrylate bone cement is used between the prosthesis and bone tissue. Although temperature rise during polymerization of the bone cement has a risk of thermal damage to the surrounding tissue and cells, it has not been elucidated. Therefore, we performed 3D heat conduction analysis based on CT images to evaluate temperature distribution during bone cement polymerization. The result showed that the maximal temperature rise reached 50℃ at the interface between bone cement and tissue, which was high enough to induce thermal damage to osteocytes. However, the damaged region was very restricted to immediately beneath the tibial tray of the prosthesis.
