In this report, we present four patients with type 1 diabetes of long duration (more than 20 years) who had multiple joint contractures (Rosenbloom syndrome) and who presented with reduced vision and advanced proliferative diabetic retinopathy. All of the cases had short stature which was non-familial and all had other microvascular complications (nephropathy and neuropathy). It seems that limited joint mobility (LJM) is a risk factor not only for microvascular complications, but also for more severe and advanced proliferative retinopathy.