Dear Sir,

The modification of the J-pouch, referred to as the so-called D-pouch in the article by Zhang et al., is not a new reconstruction [1]. The idea of avoiding the “dog-ear” was applied to the manual formation of the J-pouch by the simple manoeuvre of bringing the terminal ileum end-to-side into the proximal ileal segment as shown in the Fig. 1 [2]. This was never given a new name as it was the obvious way to construct the J-pouch once it had become clear that an end ileal stump could leak and should therefore be avoided. The technique described by Zhang et al. achieves the same for a stapled pouch. Rather than giving it a new name, would it not be simpler to continue to use the term ‘J-pouch’ but adding a phrase such as without “dog-ear”? This is more likely to be generally adopted, as it would be readily understood by surgeons to be a familiar technique with a refinement. For any surgeon intending to create a manual J-pouch, the technique shown in the figure is strongly recommended; it is easy to construct and results in no “dog-ear”.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Manual J-pouch showing the end-to-side incorporation of the terminal ileum into the proximal limb of the pouch to avoid a “dog-ear” deformity

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