Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery & Nursing
Co-Director, Neurotrauma Clinical Trials Center
Phone: (412) 648-9246
e-mail: puccioam@upmc.edu

Specialized Areas of Interest

Dr. Puccio’s specialized areas of interest are exploring secondary injury mechanisms following traumatic brain injury to improve neurological outcomes in mild, moderate and severe traumatic brain injury patients. Focused mechanisms include use of controlled normothermia and hypothermia, brain oxygenation, genetic expression and variances and clinical studies of pharmacotherapy in TBI patients.

Biography

Ava M. Puccio, RN, PhD, received her bachelor of science degree at the University of Pittsburgh in 1988, majoring in neuroscience. While working as a laboratory technician for several years, Dr. Puccio pursued a nursing degree and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a bachelor in nursing in 1994, graduating summa cum laude.

Dr. Puccio joined the Department of Neurosurgery as a nurse coordinator on the National Acute Brain Injury Study: Hypothermia (NABIS:H) study and also as the coordinator for the Brain Trauma Research Center in 1995.

Throughout her years of employment as a nurse coordinator, she pursued part-time advanced schooling to graduate with a master’s in nursing from the University of Pittsburgh in 2000. Dr. Puccio graduated as a university scholar—ranking in the top 2% of her class—from the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing with a doctoral degree, emphasis in neuroscience in 2008. Her dissertation was entitled “Effect of short periods of normobaric hyperoxia on local brain tissue oxygenation and cerebrospinal fluid oxidative stress markers in severe traumatic brain injury,” and was published in the Journal of Neurotrauma in 2009.

Dr. Puccio was appointed associate scientist at the Safar Center for Resuscitative Research at the University of Pittsburgh upon completion of her doctorate degree in 2008. This was a reflection of her past and continuing collaborations with Patrick Kochanek, MD, C. Edward Dixon, PhD, and Hulya Bayir, MD, as well as multiple critical care medicine fellows.

Dr. Puccio was appointed research associate in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh in 2009, and assistant professor in 2010. Dr. Puccio received her adjunct faculty position with The School of Nursing, Department of Acute/Tertiary Care in 2010.

Her research has focused on improving outcomes in traumatic brain injury patients, with clinical venues of controlled normothermia, mechanisms of brain oxygenation and exploring genetic variances and expression on neurological outcome.

Dr. Puccio's publications can be reviewed through the National Library of Medicine's publication database.

Board Certifications

RN License: Pennsylvania

Professional Organization Membership

Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society
Society of Critical Care Medicine
National Neurotrauma Society
Eastern Nursing Research Society
Women in Neurotrauma Research (WINTR)

Editorial Service

• Abstract Reviewer:

Society of Critical Care Medicine
State of the Science Congress on Nursing Research

• Ad Hoc Reviewer:

Pediatric Critical Care
Neurocritical Care