Notwithstanding the enthusiasm for surgical treatments, morbidity, mortality, and recovery times for elderly patients are still substantially greater than for younger patients. Some morbidities, such as postoperative delirium and cognitive dysfunction appear to predominantly affect elderly patients. In a previous study, Dr. Valerie Lawrence, a co-investigator on this proposal, demonstrated that recovery from major surgery, as measured by the ability to accomplish standard activities of daily living, takes an average of 6 weeks while more complicated instrumental activities of daily living take an average of 3 months to return to baseline in elderly surgical patients. These data have profound implications for initiatives to control length of hospital stay, utilization of resources and costs of care. Evidence suggests that family members are requiring extra time off work to care for family members discharged earlier from hospitals.