The Board has ordered a remand to obtain additional medical opinions regarding the veteran's gastrointestinal disorder and its relationship to service-connected appendectomy scar with drained pelvic abscess.
The deciding factor: Additional medical examination is needed to determine if any gastro-intestinal disorder is related to service or pre-existing condition, and whether the service-connected appendectomy scar aggravates any chronic acquired gastrointestinal disorder.
- Claimed conditions
- abdominal pain, chronic constipation
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 10, 2005
- Citation
- 0503607
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 999 · Granted: 31% (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 0503607.
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.
- Denied
The Veteran's partial pancreatectomy with chronic constipation is currently rated at 30 percent, which is the maximum rating available under current criteria. The Board finds that her symptoms do not warrant a higher rating.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that the July 2024 fee decision is incomplete and does not properly identify the full issue at the center of the present appeal, including the specific amount of past-due benefits awarded and the amount withheld for fees. The case is therefore being remanded to provide a corrected fee decision.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has found that the Veteran does not have a current respiratory disability other than sleep apnea. The claims for abdominal pain, type I diabetes, peripheral neuropathy of the upper and lower extremities, and an immune disorder are remanded due to a duty to assist error.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and abdominal pain as there is no current diagnosed disability of IBS or functional impairment due to abdominal or constipation symptoms.
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