Nearly a third of the global burden of disease require availability of surgical and anesthetic services. However, five billion people currently lack access to safe, affordable surgical and anesthesia care. Each year, appendicitis, hernia, open fracture and other common, treatable surgical diseases result in millions of disabilities and deaths. This is in part due to lack of political will, financial resource allocation, and relevant policy measures. To address these glaring needs, the lancet Commission on global surgery (LCoGS) was formed to identify the barriers to access of surgical and anesthesia care, and the current state of these services worldwide. Additionally, its purpose was to identify opportunities for improvement and development to provide safe surgery in low-income and middle-income settings. To address the needs of surgical and anesthesia services LCoGS created 5 key messages, a set of 6 core surgical system indicators, and a health system strengthening framework for national surgical care planning. These key outputs of the Commission highlighted that a widespread expansion of surgical care improves overall health and welfare of populations and improved economic returns. The findings were published as a report in the spring of 2015 to facilitate increased surgical care access that was safe, affordable, and cost-effective particularly for low-income and middle-income countries. In this review article, we summarize this seminal report and ldquo; global surgery 2030: evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare, and economic development and rdquo; published in the Lancet 2015.