The Board found that the veteran's Scheuermann's disease existed prior to service and was not shown to have worsened during service. The current back disorders, including degenerative joint disease of the lumbar spine and osteoarthritis of the lumbar spine, were not determined to be related to service or pre-existing conditions.
The deciding factor: The Board concluded that the veteran's Scheuermann's disease existed prior to service and was not shown to have worsened during service. The current back disorders were found not to be related to service or pre-existing conditions.
- Claimed conditions
- Scheuermann's disease, degenerative joint disease of the lumbar spine, osteoarthritis of the lumbar spine, degenerative joint disease of the cervical spine
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 14, 2005
- Citation
- 0503920
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,435 · Granted: 22% (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 0503920.
What this means for you
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What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's lumbar spine arthritis is aggravated by his service-connected bilateral knee disabilities, and thus grants service connection for this condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that additional development is needed for the claims on appeal, including obtaining any outstanding treatment records and scheduling VA examinations to assess the current severity of service-connected disabilities. The Veteran's representative also requested reevaluation of his service-connected disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to incomplete development of records and will provide a supplemental statement of the case if necessary.
- Granted
The Veteran's low back disability was rated at 40% prior to September 28, 2018. From that date, the rating was increased to 50%. The earlier effective date for TDIU is denied.
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