OBJECTIVES: As part of the Thematic Network on the Economic Evaluation of Healthcare Programmes and its Applications to Decision Making in Latin American Countries (NEVALAT), funded by the European Union, we sought to identify economic studies applicable to the region. METHODS: We searched the OHE-IFPMA Health Economic Evaluations Database (HEED), which contains detailed reports on economic evaluations and other types of cost analysis of health care interventions. We searched for studies classified as being applicable to any of 18 Latin American countries, as well as those categorised as relevant to ‘Latin America’ and ‘South America’. Searches were conducted in mid-2004. RESULTS: A total of 116 studies were found, the earliest from 1991 and the most recent published in 2003. The highest number of publications in any year was 20 for 1997. Ninety-four of the 116 studies (81%) were applied studies, providing some original analysis of costs and outcomes, comparative costs of alternative interventions or costs of illness. Amongst applied studies, cost consequences analysis was the most frequent category of evaluation (50%), followed by cost-effectiveness analysis (26%) and cost analyses (16%). Only four cost utility analyses and one cost benefit analysis had been performed. By disease area, nearly one third of applied studies related to infectious and parasitic diseases (ICD-9 chapter one). Over half of applied studies were drug evaluations, of which one third were of general anti-infectives for systemic use (ATC chapter J). Of the total sample of 116 studies, 54 were relevant to more than one country and 62 were single country studies. CONCLUSIONS: A number of Latin American countries are becoming interested in the use of economic evaluation for decision making in health care. The paucity of studies identified here suggests that a substantial investment in economic appraisal capacity is required to bring this about.