A high-efficiency, wide-angle illumination surgical system (12) is disclosed, one embodiment comprising: a light source (12) for providing a light beam; an optical cable (14) , optically coupled to the light source for receiving and transmitting the light beam; a handpiece (10) , operably coupled to the optical cable; an optical fiber (22) , operably coupled to the handpiece, wherein, the opticalfiber is optically coupled to the optical cable to receive and transmit the light beam, an optical element (20) , optically coupled to a distal end of the optical fiber, for receiving the light beam and scattering the light beam to illuminate an area, wherein, the optical element comprises a compound parabolic concentrator ('CPC') cone; and a cannula (16) , operably coupled to the handpiece, for housing and directing the optical fiber and the optical element. The CPC-cone optical element angularly spreads the light beam out to a high off-axis angle and emits the light out of the distal end ofthe cannula with high efficiency.