There are about 694,000 open-heart surgeries performed in US each year. The major complication rates for valve plus coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedure are as high as 30.1% in Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) reports. Postoperative delirium, infection, acute renal failure (ARF) and major adverse cardiocerebral events (MACE) which include permanent or transient stroke, coma, perioperative myocardial infarction (MI), heart block and cardiac arrest represent the major postoperative complications. These complications translate into increased mortality and prolonged hospital stays with estimated costs exceeding $20 billion annually.6 The etiologies of these adverse events are multifactorial, but one major contributing factor is the surgical stress responses that result in increasing plasma levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine, with consequent myocardial oxygen supply demand imbalance and myocardial ischemia. More than 50% of all perioperative complications are related to adverse cardiovascular events.