An evacuation system for continuously removing gas from a body cavity of a patient during an endoscopic surgical procedure is disclosed, which includes an inlet flow path leading to a first trocar communicating with the body cavity through which an essentially continuous flow of gas is delivered to the body cavity, an outlet flow path leading from a second trocar communicating with the body cavity though which an essentially continuous flow of gas is removed from the body cavity, a pump communicating at least with the outlet flow path for removing an essentially continuous flow of gas from the surgical cavity, and a processor operatively associated with the pump for controlling at least the essentially continuous flow of gas from the body cavity.