Objective To investigate factors for surgical difficulty and complications following closure of temporary ileostomy for rectal cancer. Methods The clinical data of 103 patients with low rectal cancer treated with closure of temporary ileostomy from January 2014 to July 2017 in the Northern Theater Command General Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. The associated factors of surgical difficulty and postoperative complications were identified by the univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Results In this study, there were 11 (10.7%) patients with surgical difficulty (operation time >100 min) in the 103 patients. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the history of previous abdominal surgery ［OR=5.272, 95% CI (1.325, 20.977), P=0.018］ and minimally invasive surgery ［OR=0.166, 95% CI (0.037, 0.758), P=0.020］ were the independent influencing factors of the difficulty of surgery. The complications following closure of temporary ileostomy included 16 (15.5%) patients with the incision infection, 5 (4.9%) patients with the intestinal obstruction, and 3 patients with the pulmonary infection (2.9%). The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the diabetes ［OR=4.855, 95% CI (1.133, 20.804), P=0.033］, operation time >100 min ［OR=11.914, 95% CI (2.247, 63.171), P=0.004］, and peristomal dermatitis ［OR=18.814, 95% CI (3.978, 88.988), P<0.001］ were the independent influencing factors for the incision infection. Conclusions History of previous abdominal surgery is main cause for difficulty of surgery and minimally invasive surgery can reduce difficulty of surgery. Diabetes mellitus, longer operation time, and peristomal dermatitis are main causes of postoperative incision infection.