T K Venkatesan, MD

Dr. Venkatesan has been a wonderful help in mitigating my various ENT problems. I recommend the entire Chicago ENT staff!

Dr Venkatesan is treating me for sleep disorders/​apnea (mostly for snoring). He is a caring physician and knows his stuff. I recommend him to anyone facing these problems.

Running up a bill, not focused on your care.
I went into the visit for his specialty, to check on any issues associated with a deviated septum. He said a have a moderate to severe deviated septum and, of course recommended the very same sleep study all others have mentioned. The bill for his couple minutes of time was hefty.
A follow up call from the Sleep Study Center set off my alarms. The person on the other end of the line said my insurance would cover it. In fact, the Center was not in my network. Glad I talked with my insurance before undergoing a study, it would have cost me out of pocket in the five digits range. They were incredibly disingenuous.
I plan to go see a different ENT doctor now to get a real diagnosis. Don’t bother with this doctor.

I saw Dr. Venkatesan for vertigo diagnosis/​treatment and he was wonderful to work with. He was very knowledgeable and explained my diagnosis to me in detail. He had a great bedside manner and I would absolutely recommend him and go back for any future treatment.

I found Dr. Venkatesan to be knowledgeable and very thorough. The entire staff at Chicago ENT was very efficient and courteous. The doctor took his time explaining everything to me in detail and making sure I understood my situation. I particularly like that while he looked through my nasal passages and throat with a camera, I was able to watch and see exactly what he was seeing while he explained everything to me. Overall I would say the experience surpassed expectations.

I went to see Dr. Venkatesan for some ulcers in my throat. He seemed in a hurry the whole time he was examining me. He stuck a camera down my nose to check, then said it was acid reflux. I asked if acid reflux causes ulcers and he admitted usually they did not, but put me on meds for them anyway. I’ve been taking the meds and I think they’re doing more harm than good. The ulcers are still there. I think, quite frankly, he just wasn’t sure how to diagnose me and wanted me out of his office. I will be getting a second opinion somewhere else.

Dr. T.K. Vankatesan changed my life, I went to his office. Advanced Center for Specialty Care at 3000 N. Halstead in 2008 after my family Dr. Florian Miranzadeh recomended him to resolve my nasal breathing problem, after a few visits probing my nasal passages and trying non surgical methods he decided that surgery was needed to correct the problem, that I have lived with for over 50 years.
After the nasal reconstruction operation I am now able to breathe normal, I say normal but I never knew what normal was, my nasal passges are clear, I can sleep at night, I can smell the flowers the way I never could, and I can smell foods, coffee and air, I smell Chicago, I’ve never been happier.
I cannot put into words my gratefulness and thanks to him for removing all the years of suffering I had endured without even knowing how bad it was, A whole new world has opened for me thanks to Dr. Venkatesan, and I mean it, his surgery on me was nowhere near as painful as I thought it would be, also his knowledge, caring and professionalism is beyond what I had ever expected.
When you need an, Ear Nose & Throat Dr. look no further, I know there are a lot of good doctors to choose from, but all I can say is that I’m very happy to have been lucky enough to get Dr. Venkatesan.
Thank you so much Doc.
Sincerely yours
Donald Shatner

Seeing DR. Venkatesan was the single worst Dr. experience I had in my life! Please do not go to see him if you have an issue, you will not be helped.
I had visit scheduled with Dr. Freedman who showed up for 5 min after that Dr. Venkatesan took over… I started to describe my issue that I been suffering from for 5 years, with numerous treatment, surgery etc. he did not let me finish and was passing me from nurse to nurse taking some tests that had nothing to do with the reason I came to see him. At the end I asked if I can talk to him. He started talking about all tests I need to take, so I started asking questions about how this is associated with y issue, he would say «good question» but then he would not answer it!!! I was so disappointed… the whole time he was acting like he was in hurry, he answered a call in a middle of the visit-didn’t even say excuse me… I felt sick after I left his office. It was waste of my time and money.

I found Dr. Michael Friedman listed under my insurance for an ENT to treat tinnitus. Venkatesan T K MD also treated me in the office for the same visit.
I called to make an appointment, and described my symptoms and was told that I had to wait about 6 weeks for an appointment.
On appointment day, I signed in, and began on the paperwork. Somewhere in the middle of all of it was a sleep apnea survey. I filled out a couple of questions, that vaguely fit my symptoms, and ignored the roughly 80 percent of questions that did not. I also added «none of the above» as a new column.
Finally, I was lead to an exam room.
An assistant came in to ask a couple of questions, all for the sleep apnea survey, then after a few minutes, I was introduced to Dr. Friedman. He seemed like a nice guy, we talked (or I tried) about my tinnitus, and then he gave me the sleep apnea survey orally. :(
The long and short of it: he was looking for any excuse to check any of the survey questions as a symptom. I told him about how once at 4am I dozed off while driving on an empty expressway. Check. I told him that sometimes I snored, when I had a cold and was congested. Check.
Next, I was ushered to a room with a desk, 2 small chairs, and a video player and monitor on the desk. I sat through 4 videos of Dr. Friedman from local news broadcasts.
Next, I was brought to a room where I met Venkatesan T K MD. An assistant put some numbing stuff in my nose, and he probed my sinuses. Ok, I thought, this might be related to ringing of the ears (what I came to fix), I’ll bite. Well, that hurt, like getting punched in the nose. I got to watch on a video screen, whoopee! He also probed my ears, and even exclaimed «That’s a clean eardrum!»
Next, I had a hearing test. They were reluctant to do the test (!) but the audiologist was available. I had to sit in a soundproof booth and use earbuds and some other type of hardware.
Next, I am brought back to the exam room, and told that I need a sleep study. See where this is going? I questioned this, and they told me I had enough symptoms and they «wanted to be sure.»
I was told that I would do the sleep study, and then I would come back to the office and on that day (very important) I would also have a head CT to examine my sinuses (I assumed this was to better diagnose the tinnitus — FAIL.)
So, now I started the routine to call my insurance company, call the sleep study institute, etc.
My insurance company bitched me out for not pre-​certifying the hearing test and nasal probe (they paid anyway) and then told me I had to pre-​certify the CT and sleep study. So I called the sleep study institute — they had not yet received the order for the sleep study (4 hours later?)
So I waited until the next day. I called — and they told me they had the form, but no specific test had been selected, so they needed the specialty care center to call them.
So, proactive and helpful man that I am, I called for them, and got it all straightened out in a couple of days.
Next, the sleep study institute called me to make an appointment. I would have to either wait over a month for a hotel room (paid by insurance, etc.) or I could have the study done at the institute on west Peterson. I opted for the institute because I didn’t want to wait.
Then, my spidey senses started tingling. What does tinnitus have to do with sleep apnea? I googled, and found no crossover at all.
I called the advanced center for specialty care, and asked them about this, point blank.
Later that day, I received a call from someone in the office telling me that they were concerned for my overall health, that I had set off red flags on the sleep apnea survey, and that they wanted to make sure this wasn’t an issue before continuing to treat the tinnitus.
I felt guilt at maybe not taking their medical advice, so agreed to continue with the sleep study. It went — horrible. The techs actually kept me up talking (along with the guy snoring in the room next door) and I think it’s a safe bet that the results were munged.
I arrived at my next appointment and was basically told that I had over 28 «interruptions» per hour (severe sleep apnea!) and was then told that they «probably wouldn’t get to the CT today». Then, I was given another nasal probe (I had to remind them to numb me up.) I was then told I needed the «2^nd day» sleep study with a CPAP machine. I told them I’d never use it anyway, don’t bother, how about the CT. Then, I had enough and asked how any of this was related to tinnitus treatment. Venkatesan T K MD told me that there wasn’t much they could do besides maybe biofeedback, and that they had a new doctor and a very new technique I could try. I expressed my outrage at the total waste of time on sleep apnea to him and the staff.
I made an appointment, but canceled it the next day, and blew off the sleep study institute.
Give Venkatesan T K MD a pass and find a doctor who actually wants to treat your complaint, not the complaint that makes him more money.

My experience here seems similar to those who saw Dr. Friedman, the other doctor in this office (the reviews can be found under his name).
A couple years ago I was getting strep throat all the time and my tonsils were just plain nasty (I’ll spare you the details, but it was bad), so my doctor recommended I see an ENT to get a tonsillectomy. She referred me to this office and I ended up seeing Dr. Venkatesan.
When I went in, he didn’t really seem to care about my tonsils and didn’t want to take them out because apparently I wasn’t sick enough. Um, my doctor wouldn’t have sent me here if that were true! So then with no warning he sprays this stuff up my nose and shoves a camera up there to look at my throat. My eyes instantly filled with tears because of the shock of it all, but he didn’t care.
Then he starts talking to me about sleep apnea — a problem I don’t have! He then tells me he wants me to have a sleep study done, and makes me watch some video about this device for sleep apnea (a plastic thing they implant in your throat), telling me that if they’re ‘going to be in there anyway’ while they take my tonsils out, I can have this done too. Um, what?
So I leave, with no cure for my chronic strep throat and a referral to get an unnecessary procedure done. I never called to set it up, and the sleep center started calling me. I finally told them to stop.
I went back to my doctor, received another referral to a wonderful ENT at Rush (Dr. Paul Jones) who had no hesitations about getting my tonsils out so I could feel better. Since the surgery almost 2 years ago I have felt great! And yet — still no sleep problems!
I think Dr. Friedman, Dr. Venkatesan, and the rest of their practice are just salespeople. Pushing unnecessary procedures on patients and ignoring their main complaint is not good practice. Beware.