The cost of hospital treatment of cervical and intertrochanteric fractures of femur is studied in 218 patients aged 70 and over, treated during 1985 in a specialized university department. Real costs show little difference from contractual prices as established by the hospital administration. They depend mainly on the length of hospital stay (a function of the type of treatment) and only indirectly on the type of fracture. The only hope of reducing costs is to shorten the number of days spent by these patients in costly university departments. The physician should therefore try to use methods of treatment that render patients rapidly independent, but the administration should provide enough rehabilitation wards and homes to admit semi-dependent patients rapidly after acute care of the fracture and of any associated pathology.