We would like to thank Hadamitzky et al. for their very interesting comments. They point out that the successful regeneration of skin lymphatics and blood microvessels of meshed transplants after deep burns and in venous ulcer is depending on different factors including the bacterial environment and the lymphatic drainage. We fully agree with them and have mentioned it also in the discussion of your paper [1]. We emphasized that the microvascular regeneration is a result of a viable wound bed created by debridement. One of the aims of the excision of the eschar is to eliminate the bacterial colonization or wound infection. In our study burn patients did not have signs of an infection of the wound area. In the previous study of our group regarding microangiopathy of split skin grafts in venous ulcers, no prior wound infection was reported [2]. We conclude that the bacterial environment does not explain a potential difference in microvascular regeneration in the two studies. However, we agree that the chronic interstitial edema in the wound area might influence microvascular regeneration substantially as well as wound infection.
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