Autoregulation describes the ability of an organ to maintain adequate blood flow despite varying perfusion pressure, the pressure gradient across an organ’s vascular bed. Organs vary in autoregulatory reserve or the ability to increase or decrease vascular resistance in order to couple organ blood flow with metabolic demand. Vasodilating anesthetic agents interfere with organ autoregulation mechanisms. Accordingly, organ perfusion under anesthesia becomes more dependent on systemic blood pressure.