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Curettage, in surgery, is the use of a curette to remove tissue by scraping or scooping. It may be used to obtain a biopsy of a mass to determine if it is a granuloma, neoplasm, or some other tumor. It is often employed prior to definitive excisional surgery to more precisely delineate the extent of a tumor. In selected cases, curettage may be employed to treat certain 'low risk' skin cancers such as superficial BCC. Rarely, curettage may be employed palliatively to debulk masses.