The veteran's appeal is being remanded for additional development due to changes in the law and need for updated examinations.
The deciding factor: Changes in the legal framework require proper notice under the VCAA, and updated examinations are needed to assess current disability levels.
- Claimed conditions
- traumatic arthritis of the lumbar spine, bilateral blepharitis, bilateral tinea pedis with onychomycosis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 26, 2004
- Citation
- 0405398
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 362 · Granted: 24% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0405398.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for left ear hearing loss, tinnitus, and bilateral blepharitis are denied. The claim of service connection for peripheral retinal degeneration is remanded.,The Veteran seeks service connection for peripheral retinal degeneration, but a VA medical examination or opinion addressing the relationship to his military service has not been provided.
- Dismissed
The veteran withdrew all pending appeals on April 28, 2025.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and prostatitis, bilateral blepharitis, asthma, posttraumatic stress disorder with mild, recurrent major depressive disorder, and chronic sinusitis. The claim for alcohol use disorder was denied.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claim for service connection for bilateral blepharitis, finding that it did not originate during service and is not due to a toxic exposure risk activity.
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