Costs vary greatly.If you are having all the areas treated, you should be able to find someone who can do a package price for you. A few things to be aware of:Be careful of bait-and-switch special offers. Some doctors, as is almost always the case with corporate liposuction clinics, will advertise a per area price but not mention facility fees, anesthesia fees, lab fees or base the advertised price on low BMI (body mass index).Different doctors use different ways of defining an "area". I have seen the trunk be broken into upper abdomen, lower abdomen, waist, hips, lower back, back bra roll, back hump, arm pit and front bra roll. That's nine areas. For patients who have extra body fat on the entire trunk, not treating all areas can lead to an overall undesirable look. One area looks the way it does only in relation to the areas next to it. If I had a nickel for every time patients have told me "that's the only area that bothers me", I could (almost) retire. Once one area gets treated, the areas next to it will look much bigger and often need to be treated as well. If a doctor is telling you that you need more areas treated than what you had intended, they may not be up-selling you. For example, if an overweight man with a full abdomen and chest only has his abdomen treated, his chest will look even bigger after the procedure.While having all of your areas treated at the same time has many advantages, such as one recovery, one anesthetic, one facility fee etc., there are limitations to how much liposuction can be done at any one time. Limitations to the amount of liposuction done in any one procedure are usually due to safety concerns. There are two important safety considerations when treating multiple areas. The first is the maximum amount of fat that can be removed. Most plastic surgeons limit total volume (fat and fluid) removed to less than 5 L in any one session. The second is the amount of anesthetic medicine that can be safely used. That becomes less of an issue when performing liposuction under general anesthesia than when performing the procedure while the patient is awake. Awake versus general anesthesia. Liposuction can be done on awake patients. It requires large amounts of local anesthetics (usually lidocaine) and often some type of sedation. Almost all non-plastic surgeons, like dermatologists, do liposuction without the use of general anesthesia. That is usually because of differences in training and personal choice as well as because hospitals and surgery centers do not offer privileges to non-surgeons. Some plastic surgeons use general anesthesia, and some do not. I have performed more liposuction than any other procedure. It is what I specialize in. During the last four years, I've performed over 1,000 liposuction procedures. I used general anesthesia for about 5% of my patients. I personally believe liposuction is best done on awake patients, but it is nice for some patients to have the help of an anesthesiologist. Awake liposuction is very tolerable, but it can be uncomfortable for some people. Once started, finishing the job without causing any discomfort can, at times, be challenging while most patients do fine with a small amount of narcotic pain medication like Vicodin or morphine and something else to sedate them. Some patients require more pain medication than is safe to use in an office setting. This is especially true for very sensitive patients, patients with a history of taking pain medications for long periods of time, patients requiring aggressive treatments and patients needing large volume or multiple areas treated. The advantages of awake liposuction are many. They include better results (due to the patient being able to move into different positions during the procedure), faster recovery, minimization of nausea and other complications (common after general anesthesia), more safety (in my opinion) and less expensive (the anesthesiologist charge is around $300-$450/hour).It's reasonable for an office to not give a set price over the phone. One area on one person could be like doing full-body liposuction on another.More expensive does not equal better, but rarely will you get great quality work at lowball prices.While no medical specialty has exclusive rights to any one medical procedure, I personally believe you are in better hands if treated by a board-certified plastic surgeon, and there are a few reasons as to why I believe this. Board-certified plastic surgeons have the most extensive training, are held to the highest standards by our governing bodies like the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, have the ability to understand and offer alternative procedures, are able to offer the procedure to be done as an awake procedure or to be done using general anesthesia, have privileges to an admitting hospital and the ability to take care of even the most serious complications from the procedure should something go awry. You may find liposuction advertised for less than $1,000 per area and be quoted as high as $5,000 per area. I would say paying around $10,000 for having six areas treated (upper abdomen, lower abdomen, waist, hips, back bra roll and arms) is a reasonable price in a major metropolitan area like New York City or San Francisco. Less than $8,000 would be a lowball price (at least from a board-certified plastic surgeon), and anything over $15,000 is paying too much. I hope that helps you and perhaps other readers.Best of luck,Mats Hagstrom, M.D.
