It is an integrative literature review of Brazilian scientific production on elderly family caregivers, which sought to highlight the profile of papers published in national and international, from January 2005 to September 2010, indexed in MEDLINE, CINAHL and LILACS. It was found 76 studies, published in Portuguese, Spanish or English. Twenty five were selected; most of them were published in 2009 in nursing and public health journals. The sample was divided into the following topics, according to the theme: building the caregiver's role, caregivers' quality of life and burden, caregiver's knowledge about the issues involved in care. The authors found high levels of burden, significant worsening of caregivers' quality of life, lack of support for caregivers, lack of information and preparation for care and lack of instrumentation and studies within this theme.65829-38