Detailed knowledge based on new developments, especially in analytical techniques, is needed for characterizing polymer excipients. Inverse gas chromatography (IGC) is a useful method for investigating polymer surfaces in terms of thermodynamic parameters. The aim of our work was to study the correlation between polymer surface properties determined with IGC and the mechanisms of release of water-soluble pentoxifylline and vancomycin hydrochloride from cellulose ether matrices. Tablets were made of hydroxypropyl (HPC), hydroxyethyl (HEC) or hydroxypropylmethyl (HPMC) cellulose and contained 25% of drug. Differences in dispersive component of the surface free energy for these polymers were relatively small and ranged from 26 to 33mN/m. However, polar properties, expressed as specific component of the enthalpy of adsorption and as acid-base properties show larger differences between the polymers and demonstrate their relative polarity in the order HEC>HPMC>HPC, which correlates well with water sorption on bulky polymers and with the swelling degree of polymer matrices. The release of pentoxifylline and vancomycin from HPC is governed mainly by Fickian diffusion, whereas from HEC the relaxation of polymer chains is important too. The analysis of the release profiles in the light of Peppas-Sahlin model lead to the conclusion that the surface properties of the cellulose ethers influence the interactions with water and the release mechanisms of the drug. It was found out, that data obtained by IGC enable rapid inference about the behaviour of polymers in water and the release of water-soluble drugs.