The Board has decided to remand the case for a VA examination to determine if there is a causal link between the veteran's fuel handling in service and his currently diagnosed cryptogenic cirrhosis.
The deciding factor: VA will obtain a medical opinion from a gastroenterology specialist to provide a link between the veteran's service exposure and his current diagnosis of cryptogenic cirrhosis.
- Claimed conditions
- cryptogenic cirrhosis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 24, 2006
- Citation
- 0602021
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,467 · Granted: 18% (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 0602021.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran's hypertension is granted as service connected. The liver disability claim is remanded for further development and opinion.
- Granted
The Veteran's initial disability rating for scars, status post liver transplant, is granted at a 20 percent level. The claim for an earlier effective date for the grant of service connection to status post liver transplant, chronic active hepatitis with active nodular cirrhosis, now cryptogenic cirrhosis, is dismissed.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient medical opinion regarding whether the Veteran's cause of death was related to his exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's cryptogenic cirrhosis is related to his in-service exposure to Agent Orange, and therefore grants service connection for this condition.
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