Cognitive Dysfunction in Hypertensive Patients Having Spine Surgery

While hypotension during general anesthesia has routinely been considered to be a tolerable abnormality with little clinical consequence, the proposed study takes the innovative approach of defining hypotensive events within the construct of a patient's own hypertensive status, fractional mean arterial blood pressure (fMAP). Because the investigators primary variable is within the control of anesthesia personnel, the study portends a potentially simple and easy to implement treatment. The introduction of neuropsychometric measures as the relevant evaluator of post-operative cognitive dysfunction is innovative, and may be more relevant to the average elderly patient than simple mortality.