Insights in Neurosurgery

Abstract

As people get older, the incidence of musculoskeletal pathologies such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis increases dramatically, especially by the age of 65 and the association of these pathologies to cognitive decline difficult diagnosis results in poor prognosis. Aging is a physiological process and is related to cognitive decline and when accompanied by degenerative disorders, requires specialized medical attention and treatment costs rise significantly. Pathologies at an old age include musculoskeletal disorders, which cause pain, limit the patient’s mobility, ability to dress up, cause social isolation and also put the patient on risk of fractures. Therefore, it is very important to identify changes related to aging such as articular inflammation, metabolic diseases, hypertension, immune deficiency and bone demineralization. Para clinic and imaging tests would be required to evaluate articular tissue, cartilage, ligaments, tendons, subchondral bone, meniscus and muscle. In menopausal patients bone mineral density, body mass and muscle mass indexes would be very useful. Cognitive decline associated with musculoskeletal deterioration and aging should be better prevented in order to avoid ineffective approaches when all these clinical entities are associated when patient vulnerability is present. We show clinical evidence of the association of cognitive decline and musculoskeletal deterioration.