Objectives: We examined which preoperative diagnostic measure is most suited to serve as a selection criterion to determine adult cochlear implantation (CI) candidacy.
Design: Preoperative diagnostic measures included pure tone audiometry (PTA; 0.5, 1, 2, 4 kHz), speech perception tests (SPT) unaided with headphones and with best-aided hearing aids (in quiet and in noise). Gain in speech perception was used as outcome measure. Performance of preoperative measures was analysed using the area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.
Study sample: This retrospective longitudinal cohort study included 552 post-lingually deafened adults with CI in a tertiary referral centre in the Netherlands.
Results: Best-aided SPT in quiet was the most accurate in defining which CI candidates improved their speech perception in quiet postoperatively. For an improvement in speech perception in noise, the best-aided SPT in noise was the most accurate in defining which adult would benefit from CI. PTA measures performed lower compared to the SPT measures.
Conclusions: SPT is better than PTA for selecting CI candidates who will benefit in terms of speech perception. Best-aided SPT in noise was the most accurate for indicating an improvement of speech perception in noise but was only evaluated in high performers with residual hearing. These insights will assist in formulating more effective selection criteria for CI.
Keywords: Preoperative measure; cochlear implants; hearing loss; post-lingual; selection criteria.