The Board finds that the veteran's current bilateral ankle arthritis and bilateral ankle synovitis were not incurred during active service, as there is no evidence of such conditions in service records. The pre-existing condition was not aggravated by service.
The deciding factor: The medical evidence clearly shows that the veteran had a history of fractures to both ankles prior to entry into service, which existed prior to and did not worsen during service.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral ankle arthritis, bilateral ankle synovitis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 21, 2006
- Citation
- 0611609
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,175 · 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 0611609.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for a right shoulder disability and remanded the claims for bilateral ankle arthritis, sleep apnea, bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome, erectile dysfunction, degenerative disc disease, cervical, bilateral plantar fasciitis with arthritis and heel spurs, and gastroesophageal reflux disease.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's claims for service connection for bone disease, hemorrhoids, neck arthritis, back arthritis, bilateral hand arthritis, bilateral knee arthritis, and bilateral ankle arthritis have been dismissed due to the Veteran's withdrawal of his appeal. The claim for hypertension has been granted.
- Dismissed
The Board has dismissed the appeals for service connection for bilateral foot synovitis and tenosynovitis, bilateral ankle synovitis and tenosynovitis, and bilateral hallux valgus due to an already-pending appeal of these issues from a previous VA Form 10182.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for bilateral ankle arthritis as secondary to his service-connected disability of pes planus.
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