OBJECTIVES:  Fractures of the arm can be treated by surgery or by conventional methods such as casting. Among elderly patients, the effect of the treatments may be influenced by the presence of osteoporosis. The objective of this paper is to present the preliminary results of a systematic review regarding the cost-effectiveness of treatments of arm fractures in elderly men and women. METHODS:  A literature search covering the years 1980 to 2015 (September) was conducted in international databases; PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library. To be considered for inclusion, the studies had to present specific results for study participants with a mean age above 60 years. Relevance and quality assessments were conducted by two independent reviewers. The SBU checklist for quality assessment of health economic studies was employed. RESULTS:  The review assessed 509 potentially relevant abstracts. Of these, 107 were read in full text and eleven of these were judged to be relevant for the research question. Of the eleven relevant studies, six only focused on costs, one only focused on QALYs and four were full cost-utility analyses (CUA). Two of the CUAs (both of moderate quality) investigated the cost-effectiveness of surgery versus non-surgery of proximal humeral fractures while the other two (one of low and one of high quality) compared the cost-effectiveness of different surgical treatments of distal radius fractures. All but one were trial-based analyses with a follow-up of a maximum of two years. CONCLUSIONS:  Taking into account the small number of relevant studies of sufficient quality, as well as inconclusive study results, no definitive conclusions can be drawn based on these preliminary results concerning the cost-effectiveness of treatments of arm fractures in elderly.