Typically, patients whose abdominal area has loose excess skin, or significant stretch marks will need a tummy tuck and will not benefit from liposuction alone. This is because liposuction is a procedure that only removes fat. Skin is essentially unaffected. Therefore if there is substantial loose skin or stretch marks to start with, liposuction will not remove any of the extra skin or any of the stretch mark-bearing skin. Furthermore, liposuction in these circumstances can actually worsen the problem by removing the "foundation" on which the skin rests, i.e. the underlying fat thereby leaving even looser skin than the patient started with.

Liposuction to the abdominal area is more appropriate in cases of younger patients with firm, taut abdominal skin whose main problem is extra fat. In these cases, skin reliably shrinks over the liposuctioned area and a great cosmetic result can be obtained.