A series of novel orthopedic calcium phosphate (CaP+CaCO 3 ) cements have been developed. The common point in these cements was that they all utilized single-phase CaCO 3 (calcite or vaterite) in their powder components. The major phase in the end-product of these cements was carbonated, Ca-deficient, apatitic calcium phosphate, together with some varying amounts of unreacted CaCO 3 . Calcite powders used were needle-like or acicular in shape, whereas the vaterite powders were monodisperse, and spherical or ellipsoidal in shape. A new method for synthesizing spheroidal vaterite powders has also been developed. Setting solutions for calcite-based cement scaffolds were prepared by acid-base neutralization of concentrated H 3 PO 4 and NaOH. 0.5 M phosphate buffer solution was used to transform precipitated vaterite powders into CaP at 37º to 70ºC. Setting solutions possessed pH values ranging from 3 to 7.4 at room temperature. Resultant cements were micro-(5 to 50 micron pores) and macroporous (200 to 700 micron pores). In the macroporous cements, total porosity was variable from 20 to 45%. Setting times of those cements were adjustable over the range of 12 to 25 minutes. Compressive strengths of these cements varied from 2 to 3 MPa, depending on their porosity. CaP+CaCO 3 cements thus obtained had relatively high surface areas (30 to 85 m 2 /g) whose surfaces were covered with nanocrystallites similar in size to the nanoplatelets found in biological collagencalcium phosphate composites. Cement scaffolds were characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, ICP-AES, surface area and compressive strength measurements.