Objective To compare the clinical efficacy of laparoscopic and open radical gastrectomy for the removal of lymph nodes. Methods Included in this study were 753 patients who underwent radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer in the Central Hospital of Tongchuan Mining Bureau of Shaanxi Province from October 2010 to October 2015, with 384 via laparoscopy (laparoscopic group), and 369 via laparotomy (laparotomy group). The two groups were compared in the operation time, bleeding volume, length of the incision, length of hospital stay and number of lymph node dissection. SPSS statistics 19.0 was used to process the data. Depending on the data type, independent sample t-test or Chi-square test were employed for comparison. Results The operation time in the laparoscopic group was significantly longer than that in the laparotomy group [(275.16±32.59) vs (208.72±27.37)min, P<0.001]. However, compared with the laparotomy group, the laparoscopic group had less bleeding [(151.62±28.43) vs (319.34±98.15)ml, P<0.001], shorter incision [(6.35±1.47) vs (17.53±1.78)cm, P<0.001] and shorter hospital stay [(9.17±3.24) vs (15.64±5.37)d, P=0.004], the difference being statistically significant. Lymph nodes removed totaled 9984 in the laparoscopic group with 15-41(25.86±5.47) each and 9372 in the laparotomy group with 15-46(26.47±6.12) each, without significant differences both in the total number and individual number (P>0.05). There were also no significant differences between the two groups in the number of lymph nodes removed under the similar condition in the region, depth of invasion into the gastric wall, operation method, tumor type, tumor size and degree of differentiation (P＞0.05). Conclusion With similar clinical and pathological characteristics, laparoscopic radical gastrectomy has no significantly different efficacy from laparotomy radical gastrectomy in removing lymph nodes, and the overall effect of the former is better than that of the latter in gastric cancer.