Could global surgery overcome a decline in surgical cases?

• There have been three distinct landmarks for the US surgical trainees leading to a decline in surgical volume and in open number of cases. • Global surgery experiences have been adopted to expose trainees to surgical problems not routinely seen in the Global North. • Global Surgery also exposes trainees to empathic and collaborative approaches. • Benefits of global surgery to compensate for the decline in volume, variety and open surgical cases need to be studied through an academic, ethical, and economic lens. • LMICs trainees could travel to HIC for research and clinical training in exchange for the skills and case volume that HIC trainees would obtain in LMICs.