The veteran's lumbar degenerative disc disease with arthritis does not warrant a rating in excess of 40 percent. The claims for service connection for bilateral lower extremity radiculopathy secondary to the low back disorder are remanded for further development.
The deciding factor: The examiner did not provide an opinion on whether the veteran's lumbar radiculopathy is causally related to his service-connected lumbar degenerative disc disease with arthritis, making a determination impossible based on the current record.
- Claimed conditions
- lumbar degenerative disc disease with arthritis, bilateral lower extremity radiculopathy
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 23, 2009
- Citation
- 0902364
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,987 · Granted: 15% (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 0902364.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
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- Granted
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- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection of a low back disability and bilateral lower extremity radiculopathy, finding inadequate medical opinions due to failure to consider all relevant evidence.
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