The Board denied service connection for a lumbar spine and bilateral knee disability as there was no evidence of chronicity during active service, no evidence of arthritis to any degree within the first year following service, and no competent medical evidence that linked the current back or knee disorders to service.
The deciding factor: The lack of continuity of symptomatology since service and the absence of a nexus between the veteran's current back and knee conditions and his military service were key factors in denying the claims.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, Osteoarthritic changes and degenerative disc disease of the L3rd and L4th lumbar intervertebral spaces (claimed as a back injury), Residuals of right knee injury, Residuals of left knee injury
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 10, 2009
- Citation
- 0904830
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 251 · Granted: 25% (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 0904830.
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Dismissed
The appeal of the deferred decision regarding entitlement to compensation for headaches is dismissed. Service connection for sleep apnea and bilateral sensorineural hearing loss is granted.
- Granted
The Veteran's SMC was granted at the intermediate level between 38 U.S.C. § 1114(m) and (n) due to additional disabilities including peripheral neuropathies, tinnitus, hearing loss, and lymphoma.
- Denied
The Board denied an earlier effective date for the grant of service connection for bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, finding that the Veteran's most recent claim was filed on May 23, 2017.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for a bilateral sensorineural hearing loss disability as the evidence did not support that it began during active service or manifested to a compensable degree within the first post-service year, or was otherwise related to an in-service injury or disease.
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