The Board has determined that the Veteran's DJD of the bilateral knees is caused by his service-connected back disability and grants service connection on a secondary basis.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner concurred with the opinion from the Veteran's treating physician, who stated that the Veteran's obesity, which is due to inactivity resulting from his service-connected back disability, contributes to his bilateral knee DJD.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative Joint Disease (DJD) of the bilateral knees
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 23, 2017
- Citation
- 1723817
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 1723817.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for bilateral knee disability and gastroesophageal disorder due to inadequate VA examination opinions.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for bilateral knee and back conditions due to insufficient medical opinions regarding their etiology.
- Denied
The Veteran's petition to reopen his claim for service connection for DJD of the bilateral knees was denied. The Board also remanded his claim for GERD due to an undiagnosed Gulf War illness.
- Denied
The Board found that the Veteran's DJD of the knees is not related to his period of active duty from September 1975 to May 1982 and did not find any evidence linking it to service-connected bilateral pes planus, hammertoe of both great toes and bilateral bunions. The claim was denied.
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