The objectives of this study were to assess: (i) patient expectations met as a measure of outcome in early-deafened, late-implanted (non-traditional) cochlear implant recipients and (ii) pre-implantation predictive factors for postoperative speech perception. The notes of 13 recipients were retrospectively reviewed. The mean age at onset of profound deafness was 1.5 years (range 0-6). The mean age at implantation was 37 years (range 22-51 years). Patient expectations were assessed pre-operatively and 1 year after implantation. They were met or exceeded in 129/140 (92%) domains overall. A higher Speech Intelligibility Rating and audiovisual City University of New York sentence score before implantation were found to be positive predictive factors for improved speech discrimination after cochlear implantation.