Elderly patients comprise more than 40% of all surgical patients in the USA per year and generate an even larger proportion of total healthcare costs with a sizable amount occurring during the postoperative period 1.. Therefore, reducing postoperative morbidity and mortality is a major concern in clinical practice and medical research moving forward. Cognitive dysfunction and dependence on caregivers represents two major risk factors in the elderly, especially following general anesthesia. The current literature indicates that POCD results in a mortality rate of 10% at 6 months for patients at least 70 years old and causes loss of functional capacity in an additional 20%. Overall, this results in an approximately 1 of 3 patients experiencing a negative cognitive impact following general anesthesia without optimization of anesthetic depth. In this context, continuous monitoring of the depth of anesthesia using a bispectral index (BIS) sensor may reduce the occurrence of postoperative impairments by via improved control of the anesthetic depth, especially over-sedation.