Abstract: Objective To find out the best procedure for patients with gastric cancer accompanying type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) by comparing the curative effect of laparoscopic gastrectomy and laparoscopic total gastrectomy. Methods Clinical data about 76 patients with gastric cancer accompanying DM admitted to our hospital from June 2008 to June 2010 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into laproscopic gastrectomy group (n=38) and laproscopic total gastrectomy group (n=38). The curative effect of the two procedures was compared. Results The effective rate was 73.7% and 57.9% for the laparoscopic total gastrectomy group and laparoscopic gastrectomy group, respectively (P< 0.05). The incision size was smaller, blood loss was less, the postoperative anal exhaust time and feeding time were shorter, the number of white blood cells and neutrophils was lower in laparoscopic total gastrectomy group than in laparoscopic gastrectomy group (P< 0.05). Conclusion The curative effect of laparoscopic total gastrectomy is better than that of laparoscopic gastrectomy for patients with gastric cancer accompanying type 2 DM.