We studied factors affecting the survival rate after vitreous surgery in 73 patients with diabetic retinopathy, who had undergone vitreous surgery between 1982 and 1987, according to the life-table theory and multivariate analysis. The 5-year survival rate was 84.8%; the mean age at death was 62.1 +/- 7.1 (mean +/- SD) years; the mean postoperative survival time was 34.0 +/- 25.2 months; the most common cause of death having been cardiovascular disease, which occurred in 5 of the 13 (38.5%) patients who had died. Patients with triopathy essentially require very careful systemic management, because this state was definitively associated with a decline in postoperative survival.