We report our surgical, late complications and functional outcome of 157 consecutive restorative proctocolectomies with an ileoanal J pouch at the Department of Surgery L, Arhus City Hospital. Nine patients had familial adenomatous polyposis, while 148 patients were operated for ulcerative colitis. All patients had a protecting ileostomy. There was no mortality. Surgical complications after J pouch: Six patients were reoperated, five due to intra-abdominal bleeding, one for ileus. There was only one pelvic abscess, and it was drained percutaneously. There were no fistulae, no anastomotic leakage and no early pouch removal. Surgical complications after ileostomy closure: Eight patients were reoperated; two due to wound infections, five for ileus and one due to a wound rupture. Late Complications: Four pouches were removed, due to incontinence, difficult evacuation, chronic pouchitis or Crohn's disease. There were three late pouchovaginal fistulae more than one year after surgery. Five patients had surgery for ileus, one for an intra-abdominal abscess, one for a perianal fistula and eight for incisional hernia. Functional outcome: One year after pouch surgery more than 90% of patients were satisfied with the operation, 2.2% had regretted and 3.6% were in doubt. The functional result was satisfactory in the majority of the patients, but 21.1% had one or more night evacuations and 13.9% had variable degrees of incontinence.