Antkowiak edited
Dr. Tom Antkowiak repairs and replaces shoulders. He repairs hips, and knees, and does it all in a minimally invasive manner using cutting edge technology.
Dr. Antkowiak, who has been at OAK Orthopedics since 2013, always had a love of science. His mother is a doctor. His “Holy Grail,” he says, “is to care for people.”
At OAK, he does that with a variety of innovative, cutting edge techniques. The latest technologies are right here at OAK, he says. Patients do not need to go to Chicago. The best treatments are here. “This is a special place,” he says of OAK.
One of Dr. Antkowiak’s top drawer procedures at OAK is partial knee resurfacing. It is performed on an outpatient basis. Patients experience minimal pain, and walk right away. The idea is to do surgery that is minimally invasive, with the goal of less pain and a faster recovery. Patients go home the same day and most return to normal life within a few short weeks.
The operation involves replacing only the worn part of the knee. At times this is done with transplants of cartilage, other times a resurfacing with metal is necessary. The result feels more natural than a total replacement. The knee’s ligaments are left in place. “It feels like your knee,” he says.
Once completed, Dr. Antkowiak encourages his patients to get back to whatever they were doing for exercise. “Jogging is fine. Going to the gym, swimming and biking are encouraged. Running a marathon, well, that may be pushing it.”
The resurfacing procedure is often performed ‘robotically assisted’, but that term may be misunderstood. The surgeon is still in control. What the robot does is to precisely mill out the arthritic surface of the knee to ensure that the artificial components fit the knee exactly. This results in an improved range of motion, better knee function and a faster recovery.
There are also innovative procedures involving the knee for people who don’t need a replacement. A torn meniscus can be sewn together. Cartilage, which is the main cushion in a knee, can wear out. It can be transplanted, sometimes from a donor, sometimes from a lesser used spot in the person’s own body. These are truly cutting edge procedures.
Taking a sample of cartilage, it can even be grown larger in a lab and then put back into the same knee. This, however, is often reserved for younger patients, as older individual have commonly ground away too much of the cartilage.
With the shoulder, Dr. Antkowiak sees a large number of rotator cuff tears. That is the muscle most often used in overhead activity. Here too, Dr Antkowiak offers minimally invasive treatment options including injections, stem cell therapies, and arthroscopic surgery. He is able to reconstruct the rotator cuff when it is ‘irreparable’. When all other options fail he offers minimally invasive shoulder resurfacing and replacement often with no or minimal hospital stay.
On hips, Dr. Antkowiak is fellowship trained in hip arthroscopy, the placement of a tiny camera inside the hip joint to help diagnose and treat tears that can be repaired.
OAK and Dr. Antkowiak are also offering new treatments for arthritis. These are innovative non-surgical injections. These can be shots of gel, a lubricating fluid, and also shots of a platelet-rich plasma and stem cell therapies. These treatments are often featured in the news, they have significant potential to help, and are being offered at OAK.
Dr Antkowiak was born in Poland and moved with his family, at age 4, to Saskatchewan, Canada. He speaks Polish and French. At age 17, the family moved again as parents Ted (he’s an engineer) and Danuta (a family doctor) relocated to Massachusetts.
As a young Canadian, Antkowiak played hockey on frozen ponds. He played volleyball in high school and college as a power hitter. He captained the 17 and under team (Team Saskatchewan) that won the Canadian nationals. These days he stays active by mountain biking and downhill skiing, both family activities. He loves fishing, camping and golf when time permits!
Antkowiak returned to Canada to study at McGill University in Montreal where he met his wife Lyndsay. They are now the parents of three boys ages 7, 5 and 2.
Dr. Antkowiak got a bachelor of science and a master of neuroscience at McGill. Med school was at Albany, N.Y., followed by orthopedic surgery residency at University of California-Davis and a Sports Medicine Fellowship at the Southern California Orthopedic Institute in Los Angeles.
While in Los Angeles, he treated both NBA and NHL players, along with other celebrities. It turns out that even Iron Man needed a doctor’s touch. When the super hero injured his ankle on the set of Iron Man 3, Dr Antkowiak was honored to be a part of the care team that got him back to the action!