Effect of Initial Methotrexate Concentration on the Elution and Mechanical Properties of Vertebroplastic Bone Cement

Even though antibiotic eluting bone cements are successfully used in orthopedic practice, adding chemotherapy drugs to bone cement pose a different set of problems. This is mainly due to the toxicity concerns associated with the use of chemotherapy agents. To avoid local or systemic toxicity, the drug elution profile of a particular bone cement/drug concentration need to be determined. The drug elution profile depends on many factors including initial drug concentration, mixing conditions, surface area of the bone cement implant, etc. In this study, the effect of initial methotrexate amount on bone cement elution was measured.