Objective To discussion the diagnostic significance of CT three dimension reconstruction in local recurrence after surgery for gastric cancer. Methods Thirty-nine patients with gastric cancer recurrence after radical surgery were performed multislice CT scan between December 2004 and December 2008 in The Third Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, and the images were reconstructed by three dimension reconstruction in workstation. The axial CT images and three dimension images of gastric cancer recurrence patients were diagnosed and compared. Results The detection rates of axial images and three dimensional CT images were 82.1% (23/28) and 100% (28/28) for pathological morphology, 62.5% (10/16) and 93.8%(15/16) for extension of tumors, 66.7% (10/15) and 93.3% (14/15) for lymph node metastasis, 87.5% (7/8) and 87.5% (7/8) for distant metastasis, respectively. Conclusions CT three dimension reconstruction can carry out more direct and solid results, such as measuring the vertical thickness of the thickened gastric wall, observing the infiltration situation with proximal organ, and metastasis of the lymph node. The method of three dimension reconstruction used for the diagnosis of local recurrence after surgery for gastric cancer is better than the axial image, and it can supply data which would be useful for the tumor advancing treatment.