Osteoarthritis in Axial Skeleton in Geriatric Patients

With the increase in life expectancy, spinal diseases are becoming more common during clinical practice, with high medical and socioeconomic impact. Spine pathologies in the elderly encompass a wide group, with the majority represented by degenerative changes that can virtually affect every element of the column and can be associated with pain and neural structures compression, with high impact on the quality of life. When investigating these pathologies, a multimodality approach is needed, encompassing traditional radiography, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging, as main imaging techniques. Every method, in fact, can give complementary information and has its own limits. However, it is important to keep in mind that the spine is a dynamic biomechanical structure, whereas the majority of images are obtained in static conditions or in the absence of axial load, possibly reducing the accuracy of the study.