Skin cancer nose surgery. Clip 54 of 72. Close-up of a surgeon stitching together the edges of a reconstructive skin flap after excising a basal cell carcinoma (BCC) from the nose of a female patient. The excision left a circular hole in the skin on the bulb of the nose. The skin flap, created following the excision, is being repositioned and stitched into place to cover the area where the cancer was removed. The initial stitches are between the eyes, followed by shaping, trimming and stitching the flap on the tip of the nose, followed by stitches along the bridge of the nose. This surgery is carried out under local anaesthetic. BCC is a common form of skin cancer, most often caused by over-exposure to sunlight. It grows slowly and rarely spreads to other parts of the body. The entire sequence (K002/9714 to K002/9785) shows the drawing of the incision lines (9714 to 9716), injection of local anaesthetic (9717 to 9722), BCC excision (9723 to 9725), wound cauterization (9726 to 9728), flap surgery (9729 to 9745), flap stitching (9746 to 9782), and taping the stitched wound (9783 to 9785).