[Rosacea, vinegar and lemon, dysuria and Helicobacter pylori]

A 52 year old male consulted his clinician because of dysuria, difficulty in voiding and cutaneous lesions that were cured with high daily ingestion of acid substances (vinegar and lemon). For the last 20 years he had made several consultations without finding any solution to his problem. The patient was advised to stop acid ingestion after which he presented disuria and skin lesions compatible with rosacea. Due to the known association between this skin disorder and gastric colonization with H. pylori an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was performed and the presence of the bacteria was confirmed. The patient received specific treatment with permanent resolution of the symptoms. We repeated the endoscopy with biopsy that did not show the presence of H. pylori. It is suggested that gastric colonization with H. pylori could be related to irritative symptoms of the lower urinary tract that are not due to other disease processes.