The Board finds that the veteran's current low back disability, including DJD and DDD of the lumbar spine, is not related to his military service. The preponderance of evidence does not support a finding that the veteran's current condition was incurred or aggravated during service.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner opined that the veteran's current back disability was unrelated to service, specifically indicating it was impossible to relate current back pain to service some 40 years ago and highly unlikely he had disc problems of the lumbar spine during service.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative Joint Disease (DJD) of the lumbar spine, Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD) of the lumbar spine
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 25, 2006
- Citation
- 0615298
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,699 · Granted: 17% (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 0615298.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that there is a need for additional medical examination and opinion to address the Veteran's claim of service connection for a back disability, including DDD of the lumbar spine. The current VA opinions are deemed inadequate due to their failure to consider the Veteran's lay reports of in-service injury and continuous symptomatology since service.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for a higher rating for his degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine was denied as his symptoms did not meet or approximate the criteria for a higher evaluation.
- Denied
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities, including degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine and bilateral hearing loss, do not render him unable to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for OSA as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected DDD of the lumbar spine, finding that his service-connected condition aggravated his nonservice-connected OSA.
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