Thirty-five patients who had adenocarcinoma of the middle third of the rectum were treated by resection and coloanal anastomosis. The aim of this study was to assess functional and oncologic results of an original technique of coloanal anastomosis. There was no operative mortality, and operative morbidity consisted of seven anastomotic leaks with two failures. Among 31 patients assessed for functional results only one had unsatisfactory results. Good continence was obtained within a few weeks for the 30 patients who had satisfactory results. No patients were lost to follow-up, which was over 5 years in 24 patients (68%). The 5-year survival rate was 64%, identical to that for other series.