Pouchology.org
What is Pouchology?
Pouchology is an AI-curated collection and searchable knowledge base of 393 peer-reviewed publications on the ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA, or "J-pouch") and continent ileostomy (Kock pouch), including 58 with full-text extractions. It covers the full scope of pouch surgery: operative technique, complications, quality of life, long-term outcomes, pouchitis, fertility, revisional surgery, and emerging topics like biologics and robotic approaches.
This collection spans nearly 56 years (1970–2026) with 100% PubMed identifier coverage. Papers are indexed by first author, year, PMID, and searchable abstract and full text. This is a research tool — enter any clinical question above to find relevant evidence.
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Why Pouchology?
Ileal pouch–anal anastomosis (IPAA) and continent ileostomy (Kock pouch) are among the most complex reconstructive procedures in gastrointestinal surgery. The published literature on pouch surgery spans over five decades, thousands of papers, and dozens of subspecialty topics—from pouchitis and fistula management to fertility, robotic technique, and long-term quality of life.
Yet this knowledge is scattered across journals, hard to search, and often inaccessible to the clinicians and patients who need it most.
Pouchology was created to solve this problem. It is an AI-curated collection and searchable knowledge base of over 300 peer-reviewed publications on the ileal pouch and continent ileostomy, including 58 with full-text extractions. Every paper is indexed by topic, author, year, and PMID, classified by study type, and searchable across abstracts and full text.
The topic summaries and evidence overviews you see on this site were generated by artificial intelligence to help users quickly orient to each area of pouch literature. They are not a substitute for reading the primary sources—they are a starting point.
Pouchology is a project of the iPouch Consortium, an international quality improvement initiative dedicated to advancing the care of pouch patients worldwide.
About the Founder
Stefan D. Holubar, MD, MS, FACS, FASCRS
Stefan Holubar brings a unique perspective to pouch surgery: he is both a fellowship-trained colorectal surgeon specializing in ileal pouch procedures and himself a pouch patient. This dual lived experience—from both sides of the operating table—drives his commitment to ensuring that every patient who needs a pouch receives the highest quality of care.
Dr. Holubar is co-PI of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation IBD-SIRCQ, co-PI of the ACS-NSQIP IBD Collaborative (26 sites nationally), founder of the iPouch Consortium, and has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications, the majority focused on IBD surgical outcomes.
Co-Investigator
Kevin Chen, MD
Kevin Chen is a multimodal AI expert and Co-Investigator on Pouchology.org, bringing expertise in retrieval-augmented generation, natural language processing, and clinical decision support systems to the development of PouchRAG.