BACKGROUND:

The surgical approach to early stage cervical cancer has been shown for many years to have the same results between the open and minimally invasive routes, with fewer theoretical complications in the latter.

OBJECTIVE:

To provide a description of the current evidence on the optimal approach for the surgical treatment of early stage cervical cancer.

METHODOLOGY:

A bibliographic search was carried out through Pubmed, EMBASE, Web of Science and CINAHL between 2017 and 2021.

RESULTS:

From what has been reviewed, it is hypothesized that open surgery allows greater anterior traction of the uterus, thus facilitating a wider resection of the uterosacral ligaments and parametria.

CONCLUSIONS:

The minimally invasive approach route has been shown to have worse results in terms of disease-free survival and overall survival, compared to the open route. The open approach should be reconsidered as the gold standard for patients with early-stage cervical cancer.