BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is a major public health problem worldwide. In Mexico there are an estimated 50 cases per 100,000 women. Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) is a precursor of inva- sive cancer. Early detection and treatment of this condition lead to a cure rate close to 100%. OBJECTIVES: To know the percentage of patients who, following a loop diathermy conization, present premalignant lesion recurrence within a cyto-colpo-histological follow-up period of one year; to identify risk factors for patients with persistent lesions. METHODS: A descriptive, retrospective, observational and analytical study of cases and controls conducted at the Hospital General Dr. Miguel Silva in Morelia, Mexico from January 2012 to June 2014. The subjects were patients who had undergone diathermy loop conization due to intraepithelial lesions. RESULTS: The population was comprised of 251 patients, of whom 53 (21.1%) presented recurrence within a one-year follow-up period. The average period between the conization procedure and the diagnosis of a persistent lesion was 8.92 ± 3.2 months. The average patient age was 36.1 ± 7.49 in the group that presented post-procedure recurrence, while that of patients without recurrence was 39.1 ± 7.58, with a p value of 0.025. The only risk factor that showed a statistically significant differ- ence was the persistence of oncogenic hybrids, with an odds ratio of 17.568 (8.33-37.02); p = 0.0001. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the high effectiveness of loop diathermy conization, cyto-colpo-histological follow-up is necessary owing to the high risk of persistent lesions.