The following general criteria are used to determine candidacy for a cochlear implant:

Adults

  • 18 years of age or older.
  • Severe-to-profound, bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (greater than or equal to 70 dB HL).
  • Limited benefit from appropriately fitted hearing aids, defined as scoring 50% or less on a test of open-set sentence recognition (Hearing in Noise Test [HINT] Sentences). (For Medicare patients, the score is 40% or less in the best aided condition)

 

Children

Young children: 12 month to 2 years:

  • Bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss
  • Lack of progress in development of auditory skills with a hearing aid or other amplfication
  • High motivation and realistic expectations from family
  • No medical conditions that would interfere with cochlear implant procedure

Children: 2 to 17 years:

  • Bilateral severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss
  • Lack of progress in development of auditory skills with a hearing aid or other amplfication
  • High motivation and realistic expectations from family
  • No medical conditions that would interfere with cochlear implant procedure

 

The above criteria are general guidelines only. Each patient is evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the implant team to determine if a cochlear implant is in the patient’s and family’s best interests.