Christopher Abrecht, MD
Associate Professor
Anesthesia
School of Medicine

Dr. Abrecht’s primary clinical responsibility is in pain medicine: outpatient and inpatient, chronic and acute. He seeks to improve the quality of life and functional capacity of this patients using a multi-faceted approach which includes but is not limited to medication management, multi-disciplinary consultation (such as physical therapy, integrative health, or pain psychology), and targeted injections.

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His research focus is in quality improvement in pain medicine: tracking outcomes that matter to patients and ensuring patient safety remains a priority. In the UCSF Department of Anesthesia & Perioperative Care, he is the Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine. He is also Medical Director of the UCSF Pain Management Center.

Education & Training

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• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training University of California 2018
• Anesthesiology residency Brigham and Women's Hospital
• Internal medicine internship California Pacific Medical Center
• MD New York University School of Medicine
• Pain medicine fellowship University of California San Francisco

Publications (16)

Top publication keywords:
Analgesia, EpiduralInfusion Pumps, ImplantablePain, PostoperativeInsurance, LiabilityMalpracticeAnalgesics, OpioidCompensation and RedressChronic PainPain ClinicsInsurance Claim ReviewLiability, LegalPain ManagementAnalgesicsAmbulatory CarePerioperative Period

• Racial Differences in Postoperative Opioid Prescribing Practices in Spine Surgical Patients.
  Neurosurgery 2022 Letchuman V, He L, Mummaneni PV, Agarwal N, Campbell LJ, Shabani S, Chan AK, Abrecht CR, Miller C, Sankaran S, Rambachan A, Croci R, Berven SH, Chou D, Holly LT, Guan Z
• 155. What are the risk factors for continued opioid use in patients following spine surgery?.
  The Spine Journal 2022 Nitin Agarwal, Liangliang He, Vijay Letchuman, Erica Langnas, Enrique Vargas, Rhiannon Croci, Saman Shabani, Christopher Abrecht, Sigurd H. Berven, Dean Chou, Zhonghui Guan, Praveen V. Mummaneni
• Gabapentinoid Use in Perioperative Care and Current Controversies.
  Current pain and headache reports 2022 Patel AS, Abrecht CR, Urman RD
• High-Frequency Impulse Therapy for Treatment of Chronic Back Pain: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Pilot Study.
  Journal of pain research 2021 Amirdelfan K, Hong M, Tay B, Reddy S, Reddy V, Yang M, Khanna K, Shirvalkar P, Abrecht C, Gulati A
• A Contemporary Medicolegal Analysis of Outpatient Interventional Pain Procedures: 2009-2016.
  Anesthesia and analgesia 2019 Abrecht CR, Saba R, Greenberg P, Rathmell JP, Urman RD

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• Peripheral Nerve Blocks.
  Essentials of Interventional Cancer Pain Management 2019 Nantthasorn Zinboonyahgoon, Christopher R. Abrecht, Sanjeet Narang
• Prediction of Pain and Opioid Utilization in the Perioperative Period in Patients Undergoing Primary Knee Arthroplasty: Psychophysical and Psychosocial Factors.
  Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) 2019 Abrecht CR, Cornelius M, Wu A, Jamison RN, Janfaza D, Urman RD, Campbell C, Smith M, Haythornthwaite J, Edwards RR, Schreiber KL
• Pain Medicine Board Review.
  Anesthesia & Analgesia 2018 Christopher R. Abrecht
• A Contemporary Medicolegal Analysis of Outpatient Medication Management in Chronic Pain.
  Anesthesia and analgesia 2017 Abrecht CR, Brovman EY, Greenberg P, Song E, Rathmell JP, Urman RD
• A Contemporary Medicolegal Analysis of Implanted Devices for Chronic Pain Management.
  Anesthesia and analgesia 2017 Abrecht CR, Greenberg P, Song E, Urman RD, Rathmell JP
• Intrathecal Drug Delivery.
  Pain Medicine 2017 Christopher R. Abrecht, Sanjeet Narang
• Neuropathic Pain.
  Pain Medicine 2017 Christopher R. Abrecht, Srdjan S. Nedeljkovic
• Peripheral Nerve Stimulation.
  Pain Medicine 2017 Christopher R. Abrecht, Assia T. Valovska
• National Perioperative Outcomes for Intrathecal Pump, Spinal Cord Stimulator, and Peripheral Nerve Stimulator Procedures.
  Pain physician 2015 Abrecht CR, Gabriel RA, Dutton RP, Kaye AD, Michna E, Urman RD
• Brachial Plexus Block for Cancer-Related Pain: A Case Series.
  Pain physician 2015 Zinboonyahgoon N, Vlassakov K, Abrecht CR, Srinivasan S, Narang S
• Women have less severe and extensive coronary atherosclerosis in fatal cases of ischemic heart disease: an autopsy study.
  American heart journal 2011 Smilowitz NR, Sampson BA, Abrecht CR, Siegfried JS, Hochman JS, Reynolds HR