[Red Flag 1]

FWIW,

NPA's are a great airway adjunct, even if they took up more room. Properly inserted, they do displace soft tissue and serve as a soft stint facilitating an airway. I have used them in the field as well as in the OR, PACU, ER, and ICU settings. NPA's are the only adjunct safe to use in a patient with intact protective reflexes.

I have used NPA's with patients enroute from the OR to the PACU. They are well tolerated by folks even as they wake up after surgery.

Do not sell these airway adjuncts short. During my years of clinical anesthesia practice and teaching, I have come to appreciate the simple things that work well. NPA's are minimally invasive, with few contraindications, and work very well indeed. Learn how to use them, and keep them handy if you are responsible for a patient's airway.

If you have these in your tool box because you have "heard things", you have a lot of reading to do. It also suggests you need more clinical exposure to airway management. I wonder what else is in your tool box because you have heard things?

My $.02.

RF 1