A number of closed-loop control systems have been investigated and developed for the regulation of physiological variables by automatic administration of therapeutic agents, especially in the regulation of postoperative mean arterial pressure (MAP). Several surveys of these developments reveal the fact that control strategies have evolved from simple PID based feedback control to model-based adaptive predictive control. The main driving force behind this evolution is the recognition of the patients sensitivity to drug administration which necessitate the adaptation and self-tuning ability of an automated physiological controller. This paper reflects on several years of practical experience, by the authors, in this area including the development of an adaptive computerized drug delivery system. A computerized adaptive drug delivery system has been designed and tested for automatic regulation of mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) of human patients by infusion of a vasodilator (sodium nitroprusside). A limited pilot study using the system to perform closed-loop regulation of MAP in two patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery was performed. At all times the drug infusion was monitored by an expert supervisor. The trial results show that without human intervention, patients' MAP was kept withinfl0 mmHg of the setpoint for more than 70 % of the time even in the presence of significant natural and unmeasurable disturbances.