# Curettage and cautery

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/curettage-and-cautery/  
OnCo record `curettage-and-cautery` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Scraping a small, low-risk skin cancer away with a spoon-shaped blade under local anaesthetic and then sealing the surface with heat, usually repeated two or three times in the same sitting. It leaves no stitches and a round pale scar, and unlike an excision it produces no edges a pathologist can check.

## Summary

The British Association of Dermatologists describes curettage and cautery as a surgical option for low-risk basal cell carcinoma: the lesion is scraped off with a curette, the skin surface is sealed with heat, and the cycle is often repeated a few times back to back to clear all the affected skin. It notes the trade-off plainly: it is usually not possible to test the edges of the sample to confirm complete removal as it is with an excision, but the procedure is generally considered effective for a low-risk basal cell carcinoma. Cancer Research UK adds that there are no stitches, that the area scabs over and heals by itself, and that two or three passes may be needed unless the cancer is very small.

It is also used for selected squamous cell carcinomas. In the pooled analysis of observational studies of treatments for non-metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, the pooled estimate of recurrence after curettage and electrodesiccation was 1.7 percent (95 percent confidence interval 0.5 to 3.4), the second lowest of the seven modalities reviewed, but the authors emphasised that most tumours treated that way were small, low-risk lesions and that comparison across modalities is confounded by which tumours were sent to which treatment.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-25
- Also known as: curettage and electrodesiccation; curettage and electrocautery; C and C; curettage; electrodesiccation; C and E; scrape and burn

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrodesiccation_and_curettage
- British Association of Dermatologists: basal cell carcinoma, patient information leaflet (updated July 2025): https://www.skinhealthinfo.org.uk/condition/basal-cell-carcinoma/
- Cancer Research UK: types of surgery for non-melanoma skin cancer: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/skin-cancer/treatment/surgery/treatment-surgery-types
- Lansbury et al., interventions for non-metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the skin: systematic review and pooled analysis of observational studies (BMJ 2013): https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f6153
- Nationwide cohort of 47,358 tumours (Acta Dermato-Venereologica 2026): https://doi.org/10.2340/actadv.v106.adv-2025-0079
- Aggressive histological subtypes treated with curettage alone (Dermatologic Surgery 2013): https://doi.org/10.1111/dsu.12122

## Connected records

- terms: [Creams, light and cold for basal cell carcinoma](https://onco.cc/terms/topical-and-destructive-treatment-bcc/), [Curative intent vs palliative intent](https://onco.cc/terms/curative-intent/), [Mohs surgery](https://onco.cc/terms/mohs-surgery/), [Skin grafts and flaps after skin cancer surgery](https://onco.cc/terms/skin-graft-and-flap-reconstruction/), [The margin in skin cancer surgery](https://onco.cc/terms/surgical-margins-keratinocyte-cancer/), [Wide local excision](https://onco.cc/terms/wide-local-excision/)
- cancers: [Basal cell carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/basal-cell-carcinoma/), [Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/cutaneous-scc/), [Skin cancer (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/skin-cancer/)
- fronts: [Surgery & Interventional](https://onco.cc/fronts/surgery/)
- trials: [SCIN (curettage then imiquimod against excision for nodular basal cell carcinoma)](https://onco.cc/trials/scin-trial/)

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