Neonatal hearing screening in Albania: results from an ongoing universal screening program.

The paper describes the outcomes of an ongoing universal hearing screening program in Tirana, Albania. The main objectives of the project were the evaluation of the feasibility of a neonatal hearing screening program in Albania, and an evaluation of the prevalence of risk factors in the NICU environment. One thousand five hundred and sixty-one (1561) infants from both the WB and NICU were screened with transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE). A detailed history of risk factors was collected in each case, thus it was possible to evaluate the main factors influencing the output of the screening program. It was concluded that the program had the capacity to identify infants with congenital hearing loss provided that an informative component is well-structured and delivered. Also, although the prevalence of risk factors appeared high, the reduction of 'case leakage' would allow the precise estimation of the incidence of hearing loss in the Albanian population.