Weight gain, genetic tendencies and ageing have their own independent effects on the appearance of the mid-body. Pregnancy can stretch the abdominal skin wall. In individuals whose skin and muscle have not been damaged or malpositioned by stretch and who have appropriate skin elasticity, the mid-body may be contoured very effectively with liposuction alone. When an individual is a candidate for mid-body liposuction, the advantages of this method of body contouring over more invasive methods are many; they include shorter incision and also an easier and sometimes shorter recovery period.


This is a 32 year old woman with a BMI of 24 who underwent mid-body liposuction using ultrasound assisted liposuction. She had borne one child and had a few stretch marks over her anterior abdomen. Typically, such patients are better candidates for an abdominoplasty, but this woman's skin elasticity was fairly intact and her abominal wall muscles had not been overly stretched by the pregnancy either. She very much wished to avoid any scarring over her abdomen. She and I were both willing to accept a minor amount of skin looseness and so after much discussion, I proceeded with ultrasound


This is a 21 year old woman with a BMI of 25.5 who had borne one child and became very displeased with the contour of her abdomen as a result. She had already been told that she had an umbilical hernia and wished to undergo repair of both issues at the same time.


This 25 year old woman with a preoperative BMI of 31.8 underwent abdominoplasty along with circumferential liposuction. This procedure treats the trunk or mid-section of the body as one unit all the way around. I believe that this method results in a more harmonious result than treating just the front with an abdominoplasty or just the back with liposuction.


This case depicts a 41 year old woman who had borne one child via c-section. Because her skin had remained relatively undamaged by the distensing effects of pregnancy, she elected to undergo abdominal recontouring by liposuction, A previous pregnancy does not indicate that an individual is not a candidate for liposuction of the abdomen.


This case depicts a 33 year old woman who was fit, slender and had never been pregnant. She had, however, a genetic tendency to accumulate fat in the mid-body- front and back. Because she had excellent skin tone and skin elasticity, this type of individual was the optimal candidate for liposuction.