Varicella is an acute, contagious, exanthematous disease which occurs most often in childhood. Varicetia is the most frequent notifiable disease in Slovenia. although varicella is thought to be a mild disease, serious complications can occur, particularly in neonates, adults, pregnant woman and immunocomprornised persons. In the eighties effective and save vaccine againstvaricella was developed. Economic analysis in some European countries, USA, Canada and Japan confirmed economic benefits of universal childhood immunisation against varicellač some of the countries introduced it in routinechildhood immunisation programmes. The purpose of the retrospective study was to analyse hospitalisation for varicella (demographic features, the hospitalisation rate, cause of hospital admission, duration of hospitalisation, number and types of varicella complications, usage of antimicrobial drugs and sequelae of varicella) in order to perform a costs-benefit analysis of universal childhood vaccination against varicella inSlovenia. All patients with varicella who were admitted to the Department ofInfectious Diseases, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, between January 1,1995, and December 31, 1998, were included in the study. (Abstract truncatedat 2000 characters).