Personally I view the torso as a single anatomic unit and try to treat the entire torso if I’m going to do liposuction of the abdomen. I do not like doing spot treatment of the torso because it leaves people with an unnatural fat distribution with obvious transition zones from treated to untreated area. Treated areas have a different appearance and only treating the “problem areas” is a implicistic approach that doesn’t look good. A full torso includes upper abdomen, lower abdomen, love handles/hips down to the top of the hip dip, waist, full back and under arms. If indicated I would also include pubic area and lower back. My approach to doing body contouring comes from having done over 8000 liposuction procedures with the last 10 years of work being devoted exclusively to doing only liposuction and fat transfer procedures. By far the most important variable is choosing the most experienced and talented provider. that’s trumps all other decisions when it comes to Liposuction. The type of equipment is irrelevant in comparison to who does the procedure. Delivering consistent high-quality Liposuction results is more difficult than most people believe including plastic surgeons. Being a board certified plastic surgeon with overall good reputation is insufficient to guarantee someone has mastered this procedure. To find the most experienced provider I suggest having multiple in person consultations. During consultations ask each provider to show the entire collection of abdominal liposuction before and after pictures. Seeing a handful of pre-selected pictures which most likely represent the best results of the providers career is insufficient to get a clear understanding of what the average results look like in the hands of each provider. Ask to see examples of the best results, average results unless than results. ask especially to see as many before and after pictures as possible of patients who have similar body characteristics to your own. And experienced plastic surgeon should have no difficulty showing you 50 or more sets up before and after pictures. Highly experienced surgeons will have hundreds or thousands of before and after pictures to choose from. Discuss in detail what areas were included with treatment and look critically at every area treated including transition zones between treated and untreated areas. Look critically for areas of technical imperfection such as streaks, dents, divits or uneven skin texture. One looking at before and after pictures look at results critically and every aspect of the body that was treated with Liposuction looking for technical imperfections or evidence of less than ideal outcomes. Those who have mastered this procedure should be able to deliver flawless results consistently. Finally, I recommend patients read all the reviews on various physician review websites avoiding providers for any significant number of justified negative reviews. The absence of justified negative reviews is more important and more telling than an abundance of positive reviews. If possible avoid virtual consultations. When in doubt schedule more consultations. Find the right plastic surgeon and everything falls into place. Liposuction results are permanent and irreversible. if done poorly patients can be left disfigured. Best, Mats Hagstrom MD