The photodesorption of CO from TiO2(110) by femtosecond pulses is investigated with the Surrogate Hamiltonian approach. The aim of the study is to resolve the relaxation mechanism and forecast the lifetime of the exited state based on a microscopic description of the excitation and relaxation processes. The parameters characterizing the system are obtained from ab initio and Density Functional Theory-calculations with one parameter estimated from physical considerations and convergence studies. Two electronic states are considered and the relaxation is assumed to be due to the interaction of the excited adsorbate with electron hole pairs in the surface. Desorption probabilities and velocity distributions of the desorbing molecules are calculated and an exited state lifetime is predicted. Throughout this paper atomic units, i.e., ℏ = me = e = a0 = 1, have been used unless otherwise stated.