Background: Gamma radiation sterilization can make cortical bone allograft more brittle, but whether it influences mechanical properties and propensity to form microscopic cracks in structurally intact cancellous bone allograft is unknown.
Questions/purposes: We therefore determined the effects of gamma radiation sterilization on structurally intact cancellous bone mechanical properties and damage formation in both low- and high-density femoral cancellous bone (volume fraction 9%-44%).
Methods: We studied 26 cancellous bone cores from the proximal and distal femurs of 10 human female cadavers (49-82 years of age) submitted to a single compressive load beyond yield. Mechanical properties and the formation of microscopic cracks and other tissue damage (identified through fluorochrome staining) were compared between irradiated and control specimens.
Results: We observed no alterations in mechanical properties with gamma radiation sterilization after taking into account variation in specimen porosity. No differences in microscopic tissue damage were observed between the groups.
Conclusions: Although gamma radiation sterilization influences the mechanical properties and failure processes in cortical bone, it does not appear to influence the performance of cancellous bone under uniaxial loading.