The Board finds that the preponderance of evidence is against a finding that degenerative joint disease of the lumbar spine was caused or aggravated by service-connected right knee disorder. The claim for secondary service connection for left leg shortening as well as other issues are remanded.
The deciding factor: The August 2003 VA joints examination did not find any relationship between the veteran's degenerative joint disease of the lumbar spine and his service-connected right knee disorder, and thus denied the claim for secondary service connection.
- Claimed conditions
- degenerative joint disease of the lumbar spine, left leg shortening
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 20, 2006
- Citation
- 0635975
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,419 · Granted: 21% (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 0635975.
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 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.
- Denied
The Veteran's appeal for a higher level of SMC was denied as he does not meet the criteria for any additional levels of SMC based on his service-connected disabilities.
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