 In Germany every second inpatient surgical intervention is performed on patients aged 60 years and above. These patients often offer an extensive set of risk factors such as frailty, malnutrition, poor physical fitness and multi-morbidity that may in turn lead to longer hospitalizations and decline of health and functional status after surgery. An age-related increase in postoperative complications, such as postoperative cognitive dysfunction POCD and delirium is associated with a higher rate of postoperative morbidity, mortality and longer hospitalization. 