The Board has determined that the veteran's claimed bilateral ingrown toenails and lumbar spine disability are not service-connected, as there is no competent medical evidence linking these conditions to his military service.
The deciding factor: A VA examiner concluded that the veteran's current ingrown toenails were likely due to self-treatment of transitory infections over many years, unrelated to in-service treatment. The lumbar spine disability was attributed to post-service injuries.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral ingrown toenails, degenerative disease of the lumbar spine
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 15, 2006
- Citation
- 0604287
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,555 · Granted: 19% (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 0604287.
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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 Veteran's initial 10 percent rating for migraines is granted, while a compensable rating for bilateral hearing loss is denied. Service connection is granted for pes planus, but not for degenerative disease of the lumbar spine, bilateral knee pain, hypertension, GERD, or sleep apnea and generalized anxiety disorder.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for bilateral ingrown toenails, finding that his condition is etiologically related to his active military service.
- Denied
The Veteran's appeals for increased ratings and service connection were denied. The left total knee replacement claim was denied as the maximum schedular rating has been assigned, and the hemorrhoids claim was denied due to no new evidence warranting a higher rating.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for a refund of a VA funding fee to obtain additional records and readjudicate the decision with consideration that the Veteran was still on active duty and receiving service pay at the time of the closing of his home loan.
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