The Board has granted service connection for bilateral cataracts, arthritis of the right and left hand fingers, and a total hip replacement. The Veteran's current conditions are considered direct service connections.
The deciding factor: Service treatment records were silent on any complaints or diagnoses related to these conditions. However, post-service medical evidence supports the current diagnoses and their association with service.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral cataracts, Right-hand finger disorder (likely arthritis), Left-hand finger disorder (likely arthritis), Right hip disorder (total hip replacement)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 100%
- Decision date
- December 28, 2016
- Citation
- 1648244
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 1648244.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran's bilateral eye disability, including cataracts and a choroidal nevus affecting the left eye, is not attributable to active military service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal is remanded due to pre-decisional duty to assist errors, including inadequate VA examinations and ineffective assignment of an effective date. A new VA examination is required to assess the current severity of his service-connected bilateral dry eye syndrome and cataracts, with a focus on whether a separate compensable rating for dry eye syndrome is warranted.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for bilateral cataracts and status-post eye surgery, finding that the conditions are not related to service or in-service exposures.
- Denied
The Board denied a rating greater than 20 percent for diabetes mellitus, type II, with bilateral cataracts and total disability based upon individual unemployability (TDIU) as the evidence did not support an increase in the Veteran's ratings or entitlement to TDIU.
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