Population aging is a most important demographic process in the recent decades. The elderly subjects constitute an increasingly greater fraction of the patients staying at multifield hospitals. They are characterized not only by having multiple pathologies but also by age-related changes in peripheral tissues. These physiological changes may considerably aggravate the clinical conditions of the patients. One of the processes accompanying aging is sarcopenia or the loss of muscular mass leading to deterioration of the quality of life and physical independence, disablement and a poor life prognosis. Sarcopenia has been extensively studied in recent decades with reference to it social and economic consequences. At the same time the efficacy of measures designed to control sarcopenia is impaired by concomitant diseases and age-related changes in the muscular tissue. The problem of sarcopenia is insufficiently dealt with in the Russian-language literature despite its clinical significance. This review is intended for a wide circle of clinicians dealing with aged patients in their practical work.