The records of 151 patients who developed retinal arterial obstruction were reviewed to evaluate the survival prognosis of these patients. Survival rates were calculated to expected rates of an age- and sex-matched control group of patients without retinal arterial obstruction. The presence of visible embolus and a branch retinal artery occlusion were found to be significant factors for worse survival prognosis (P = 0.0001 and P = 0.001, respectively). The survival rate of the entire group of 151 patients with retinal artery occlusion was not significantly different from that of the age- and sex-matched group (P = 0.29). Among the patients evaluated with continuous-wave Doppler sonography, the presence or the absence of the atheromatous carotid disease did not significantly affect the survival.