Nasopharyngeal airway

Nasopharyngeal airway
Nasopharyngeal airway.
ICD-9-CM	96.01
[edit on Wikidata]

In medicine, a nasopharyngeal airway (NPA), nasal trumpet (because of its flared end), or nose hose, is a type of airway adjunct, a tube that is designed to be inserted through the nasal passage down into the posterior pharynx to secure an open airway. It was introduced by Hans Karl Wendl [de] in 1958.^[1] When a patient becomes unconscious, the muscles in the jaw commonly relax and can allow the tongue to slide back and obstruct the airway.^[2] This makes airway management necessary, and an NPA is one of the available tools. The purpose of the flared end is to prevent the device from becoming lost inside the patient's nose.^{[citation needed]}