The Minimally invasive surgical approaches have been used with increasing frequencies in the management of gastric cancer nowadays. Laparoscopy plays an important role in staging and in the detection of occult metastatic disease not picked up by conventional imaging methods. The staging laparoscopy for gastric cancer ensures the avoidance of unnecessary laparotomy in significant number of cases, due the fact that in these patients exists intra–abdominal disease (subcentimetric metastases to peritoneum, liver or other visceral organs) that cannot be detected by modern imaging techniques.