Introduction: Gastric cancer continues to represent the highest mortality from cancer in men in Chile. In a systematic review, they showed that 59% of the patients who were classified as M0 by different studies such as CT, magnetic resonance imaging and PET, metastases were detected at staging laparoscopy. The objective of this study is to describe the surgical technique of staging laparoscopy including peritoneal cytology and a review of the literature regarding its indications and the possibility of behavior change. Materials and Method: Articles were searched via MEDLINE/PubMed (U.S.A. National Library of Medicine), Cochrane Library, Elsevier, SciELO, no statistical analysis was applied, 23 references related to the topic and related international and national subjects were included. The procedure to be described will be diagnostic laparoscopy and peritoneal fluid cytology for pathological study. Discussion and Conclusions: Staging laparoscopy achieve a change in behavior in approximately 20% of the cases, but more validation studies are needed in the centers that treat this disease in the country.