The Board has remanded the claims of service connection for degenerative joint disease of the lumbar spine and right knee disability, as well as bilateral hearing loss. The Veteran is seeking to establish a relationship between his current disabilities and his active duty service or a service-connected condition.
The deciding factor: The VA needs to obtain medical opinions regarding the nature and etiology of the Veteran's back and right knee disabilities, including whether they are related to in-service events such as earning a Parachute Badge and hearing loss during service. Additionally, an audiologist is needed to determine if the Veteran’s bilateral hearing loss had its onset during service or is causally due to noise exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative joint disease of the lumbar spine, Right knee disability
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 8, 2018
- Citation
- 18124660
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 18124660.
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)
The Veteran's claim for an increased rating of his low back disability is being remanded due to the reduction in evaluation from 40 percent to 20 percent effective May 31, 2014. The RO needs to provide updated VA treatment records and schedule a VA examination to determine the current severity of the disability.
- Denied
The Board denied extraschedular ratings for the Veteran's service-connected lumbar spine and lower extremity radiculopathy disabilities, as well as a total disability rating based on individual unemployability prior to February 3, 2011.
- Granted
The Veteran's TDIU claim for bilateral knee disabilities and his right and left knee scars have been granted. He is now rated at a combined 60% disability rating from June 1, 2018 based on bilateral factors for his bilateral knee disabilities.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for a right knee disability, finding that his current diagnosis of right knee strain is related to his military service.
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