Opioid Use in Critical Care

Jose L. Pascual, MD, PhD, FRCS(C), FACS, FCCMAssociate Professor of Surgery and NeurosurgeryPerelman School of MedicineClinical Associate, School of NursingUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, PA, 1904USA
Timothy G. Gaulton, MD, MScAssistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical CarePerelman School of MedicineUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, PA, 1904 USA
Jose Pascual is an intensivist/surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania, board certified in the US and Canada. He finished his fellowship in 2007 and his basic science PhD in resuscitation immunobiology, at McGill University, in 2005. His thesis investigated the salutary effects of immunemodulating fluids in shock.
As faculty of Medical and Nursing Schools, Dr. Pascual teaches students, residents, fellows and advance practice providers in several didactic and skills courses. However, most notable is his role as research mentor for medical, nursing and undergraduate students raising questions at the bedside and attempting to answer them through clinical or basic science research projects. In the last 5 years, Dr. Pascual has mentored 23 research trainees, several of whom have won awards at national/international scientific meetings.
Jose Pascual's research interests include Traumatic Brain Injury, shock and ICU education through simulation and patient safety initiatives. His TBI laboratory studies immune responses to injury through intravital microscopy of the cerebral microcirculation investigating the role of the neutrophil in injury and shock.
Dr. Pascual has launched several ICU educational initiatives using simulation integrated within the ICU to teach day-to-day emergent event management by the multidisciplinary team (NPs, MDs, nurses, pharmacists) through learning from errors or near misses. Initiatives relating to videorecorded simulator-generated or real emergent events have been integrated in ICU Quality Improvement efforts and also published.
Timothy Gaulton is an board certified intensivist/anesthesiologist at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed residency in anesthesiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in 2016 and fellowship in critical care medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 2018. Dr. Gaulton works clinically in neurologic/neurosurgical and trauma ICUs. Dr. Gaulton's academic focus is on perioperative outcomes research and optimizing functional and cognitive recovery after acute illness and trauma, particularly in older adults and the obese.

Epidemiology of Opioid Use.- Assessment of Pain in the ICU.- Pharmacology and Pharmacokinetics of Opioids in the ICU.- Opioid Analgesics Interactions with other Drugs.- Side Effects of Opioid Analgesic Therapy.- Rational Selection and Utilization of Opioid Analgesics in Critical/Acute Care.- Monitoring of Opioid Analgesic Use and its Effects in Acute Care.- Opioid Tolerance and Hyperalgesia in the ICU.- Strategies to Prevent and Treat Opioid Tolerance and Hyperalgesia in the ICU, I.- Strategies to Prevent and Treat Opioid Tolerance and Hyperalgesia in the ICU, II.- Interaction of Opioids with Sedative Practices in the ICU.- Acute Pain Management in Patients with Opioid Dependence.- Management of Opioid Overdose.- Use of Opioid Analgesics in Post-Surgical and Trauma Patients.- Post intensive Care Syndrome and the Potential Long-Term Effects of Pain and Opioid Therapy in the ICU.- Special ICU Populations: Opioids in Neurocritical Care.- Special ICU Populations: Opioids in Geriatrics.- Special ICU Populations: Opioids in Obstetrics, Labor & Delivery.