ABSTRACT

During the U.S. Civil War surgeons performed a vast number of surgeries. Whether surgery increased wounded soldiers’ chances of survival has been debated ever since. I analyze a unique observational data set gathered by Dr. Edmund Andrews, a surgeon with the 1st Illinois Light Artillery. I use Dr. Andrews’s data, model selection tools, and doubly robust estimation methods to estimate treatment effects from surgery. I find that surgery increased wounded soldiers’ chances of survival by 0.09–0.16, depending on the specific model of surgical procedure.

中文翻译：

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南北战争手术有效吗？

摘要

在美国内战期间，外科医生进行了大量手术。此后一直在争论手术是否增加了受伤士兵的生存机会。我分析了伊利诺伊州第一轻型炮兵的外科医生埃德蒙·安德鲁斯（Edmund Andrews）博士收集的独特观察数据集。我使用安德鲁斯博士的数据，模型选择工具和双重可靠的估计方法来估计手术治疗的效果。我发现，根据手术程序的特定模型，手术使受伤的士兵的生存机会增加了0.09-0.16。