Electrodesiccation and Curettage
A small, low-risk skin cancer is scraped out with a sharp loop, and the base is then burned. It takes one visit and needs no stitches. It leaves a round pale scar, and the edges are never checked under a microscope.
Key facts
Treats
Selected low-risk skin cancers
Recovery
Wound healing: about 2–4 weeks
Treatment plan
Usually one treatment
Typical cost
Office-procedure quote
What is it?
It combines scraping and heat.
A lesion is scraped with a curette and treated electrically.
It suits superficial lesions.
It can treat carefully selected low-risk skin cancers.
It does not check margins.
It lacks the margin assessment of excision or Mohs surgery.
Not every cancer qualifies.
Type, site, size and depth determine suitability.
What it treats
Treatment areas
Electrodesiccation and Curettage
The specific lesion, scar or affected patch determines the treatment site; there is no fixed body distribution.
Electrodesiccation and Curettage
The specific lesion, scar or affected patch determines the treatment site; there is no fixed body distribution.
Skin tones
Lighter skin
Some risk
A round pale scar.
Medium skin
Some risk
Pale scar is more visible.
Deeper skin
Higher risk
Pale or raised scars are more noticeable; discuss excision.
How it works
Diagram explanation
A curette removes tissue: A clinician scrapes away the selected lesion. Electrical treatment treats the base: Energy dries or coagulates tissue in the treatment bed. The wound heals: The open area repairs with scar tissue; follow-up remains important.
Schematic illustration. Technique and response vary. This explains a mechanism and does not specify treatment settings.
Before your treatment
The week before
Do not stop: Blood thinners: Aspirin, clopidogrel, warfarin, apixaban, rivaroxaban and similar are usually continued — extra oozing is easier to manage than a clot or a stroke.
Ointment and dressings: Buy plain petrolatum ointment and non-stick dressings beforehand, not on the way home.
Day of treatment
Before you arrive
What to wear and eat: Wear something you do not mind getting blood on.
Arrival & prep
The lesion is matched against the biopsy report, photographed, and consent signed.
Treatment
The doctor scrapes with the curette, which feels like pressure and tugging, not pain.
The electric probe follows, with a faint buzz and a smell of burning. The pair is repeated two or three times; one lesion takes about 10 to 20 minutes. Nothing should feel sharp once you are numb, so say so if it does.
Before you leave
A round, shallow, raw crater slightly larger than the growth, under ointment and a dressing.
After your treatment
First 24 hours
Day 1 to 7: The wound weeps and the base looks yellow.
Weeks 2–4
Weeks 2 to 6: The crater shrinks and the base turns pink.
Beyond 1 month
Month 2 to 12: The scar starts pink and firm, then flattens and pales over roughly a year.
Time to results
Immediately
How long results last
90–95% cure for suitable cancers
Risks
When to contact your provider
Watching: The wound should get smaller every week, not larger.
Most of what happens after this procedure is expected rather than a complication
weeping, a yellow wound base, itching, and a visible scar. Real problems are uncommon.
Incomplete removal
The main risk of this method, and the price of not checking margins. It shows up months to years later as a small pearly bump, a scab that keeps returning, or a rim of redness at the scar edge. Treatable with an excision or Mohs surgery, easiest while small.
A raised or thickened scar
One climbing rather than flattening after two months, or itching and spreading past the original border. Steroid injections and silicone work best before a scar is mature.
A wound that stalls
A lower leg wound no smaller after six weeks needs review. Swelling, circulation and diabetes are the usual reasons.
Numbness or a patch that stays firm
Uncommon. Raise it at follow-up rather than living with it.
Cost
Typical cost
Office procedure fee
Pricing
This is the least expensive way to treat a skin cancer surgically.
Insurance
In the US it is billed as a destruction procedure, priced by lesion size and body site, and generally covered when it treats a diagnosed skin cancer.
Alternatives
Surgical excision
Cuts the tumor out with a measured margin of normal skin and sends the whole piece to a pathologist, so the edges are actually examined. Cure rates for the same low-risk tumors are similar or slightly better. The trade is stitches, a linear scar longer than the growth was, about two weeks of activity restriction, and a higher cost, in exchange for a documented answer.
Mohs surgery
The highest cure rate of any method. The entire margin is checked during the appointment and the least normal skin is removed, which is why it is used on the face. The trade is a four-to-eight-hour day and a much higher cost, and it is more than a small low-risk trunk tumor needs.
Topical imiquimod or 5-fluorouracil cream
For superficial basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma in situ. No cutting, no scar, done at home over several weeks. The trade is a long, red, inflamed and uncomfortable course, lower cure rates than surgery, and no way to confirm the tumor is gone.
Photodynamic therapy
For superficial tumors and for sun damage spread across an area. Usually leaves the least visible mark afterward. Painful during treatment, needs specialist equipment and several visits, and cure rates sit below surgery.
Cryotherapy, freezing with liquid nitrogen
For very superficial lesions and strong evidence for precancerous spots. Fast and needs no injection. Depth is harder to control, there is no margin check, and it leaves a pale mark of its own. It is used far more for actinic keratoses than for a diagnosed cancer.
Radiation therapy
Moderate to strong evidence. Reserved mainly for people who cannot have surgery, or for tumors where surgery would be disfiguring. No cutting, but many visits over weeks, a permanently altered patch of skin, and it is generally avoided in younger people.
What is worth doing at home
Daily broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher, sun-protective clothing and shade lower the rate of new skin cancers. Checking your own skin monthly, and keeping the professional checks, is how the next one gets found while it is small. Prevention and detection are the parts of skin cancer care that genuinely happen at home.
Questions
Does it hurt?
The numbing injection stings for under a minute. After that you feel pressure and tugging, not pain. Afterward the site is sore rather than painful, and acetaminophen is enough.
Why don't they check the edges under a microscope?
There is no intact specimen to check — the tumor is scraped away in fragments and the base burned. The method relies on the operator feeling soft tumor against firm normal tissue, which is reliable for shallow, clearly bordered tumors and unreliable for others.
What will the scar look like?
A round, flat disc, usually slightly wider than the original spot and lighter than the skin around it. Some are a little sunken, some raised. Pink at first, paling over about a year. It is permanent.
How long until it heals?
About 3 to 6 weeks on the face, trunk and arms. On the lower leg it is slower, sometimes two to three months, particularly in older adults or with diabetes or poor circulation.
Can I have this instead of Mohs surgery on my face?
Sometimes, for a small superficial tumor on the cheek or forehead. Generally not for the nose, eyelids, ears, lips or the creases around them, where recurrence is higher and there is less spare skin. Ask why one is recommended over the other for your tumor.
What are the chances it comes back?
For a well-selected, small, low-risk tumor, cure at 5 years is commonly quoted around 95 percent. That falls when the method is used on tumors it was not meant for — aggressive subtypes, recurrent tumors, unclear borders, high-risk facial sites.
Related
Surgical Excision
Basal Cell Carcinoma
Mohs Surgery
Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Seborrheic Keratosis
Melanoma
Photodynamic Therapy
Keloids
Electrodesiccation and Curettage vs Mohs Surgery
Electrodesiccation and Curettage vs Photodynamic Therapy
Electrodesiccation and Curettage vs Surgical Excision