Knee Board decisions

The veteran's service-connected disabilities do not meet the criteria for specially adapted housing or special home adaptation grant due to his overall disability level.

The Board has granted service connection for a bilateral knee disorder secondary to the veteran's service-connected bilateral pes planus, but denied service connection for a back disorder.

The Board found that VA properly reduced the evaluation assigned to the veteran's left knee disability from 20% to 0%, effective March 1, 1996.

The Board denied the veteran's claims for higher ratings for his service-connected left knee disabilities, finding that no new and material evidence had been submitted to reopen a claim for bursitis of both shoulders. The rating for arthritis due to trauma of the left knee was maintained at 10%, while the rating for relaxed medial and collateral ligaments of the left knee remained at 30%.

The Board has determined that the veteran's arthritis of both knees did not exist during service or within one year after discharge, and is not related to his active service.

The Board denied reopening the claim for service connection of a right knee disorder and denied an increase in rating for bronchial asthma with allergic vasomotor rhinitis.

The Board has determined that the veteran's claimed conditions are not related to his military service and thus denied all issues on appeal.

The veteran's claims for higher ratings for his left knee disability and psychiatric disability were denied by the Board of Veterans' Appeals.

The Board found no clear and unmistakable error in the prior rating decisions that rated the veteran's right knee arthritis as 20 or 30 percent disabling under arthritis Diagnostic Codes rather than as 30 or 40 percent disabling muscle group XI and XIV injury Diagnostic Codes.

The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for left knee chondromalacia and left ear hearing loss from initial service connection, finding that the evidence did not meet the criteria for a higher rating.

The veteran's PTSD was rated at 50 percent from May 19, 1997, and increased to 70 percent from March 2, 2000. The left knee condition did not warrant a higher rating.

The veteran's appeal is being remanded for a video conference hearing with a member of the Board. The issues include service connection for left ankle and knee disorders, as well as whether new and material evidence has been presented to reopen a claim of entitlement to service connection for bronchitis.

The Board has determined that the veteran's left knee disability, characterized by chronic infrapatellar tendonitis with normal range of motion and no effusion, does not warrant an increased rating beyond the current 20 percent assigned.

The Board has granted a 30% evaluation for arthritis of the left knee and denied an increased rating for instability, finding that the veteran's subluxation is no more than slight.

The veteran's arthritis of the right and left knees is granted service connection, while his other joints are denied. The Board finds that the evidence is in equipoise as to the matter at issue for the knees.

The Board granted service connection for the veteran's injury to his right lower extremity, with below-the-knee amputation, as secondary to his service-connected PTSD and assigned a 60 percent rating. The effective date is set at November 14, 1989.

The veteran meets the requirements for specially adapted housing due to permanent and total service-connected disability, including loss of use of one lower extremity with associated organic disease or injury affecting locomotion.

The veteran's appeal for increased evaluations of her knee conditions has been dismissed due to the withdrawal of the appeal by her representative.

The Board has denied the veteran's claims for increased evaluations for left ear hearing loss and traumatic arthritis of both knees, as well as his claim for service connection for malaria. The VA found that there was no evidence to support these claims.

The Board denied the veteran's claims for service connection of left knee disability other than a laceration scar, and for a compensable evaluation for a laceration scar. The denial was based on lack of new and material evidence to reopen the claim and insufficient evidence supporting a compensable rating.