The Board has determined that the Veteran's skin conditions are not related to his military service, including exposure to herbicide agents or sun exposure in Vietnam. The preponderance of evidence does not support a nexus between the Veteran’s skin conditions and his military service.
The deciding factor: Both VA examiners opined that in-service dermatitis is not related to the current skin conditions and both the private and VA addendum opinion establish that the Veteran's skin conditions are not related to herbicide agent exposure. The VA addendum opinion was more persuasive due to its consideration of factors such as the latency of development, cumulative lifetime sun exposure, lack of evidence of sunburns in service, and natural aging process.
- Claimed conditions
- actinic keratosis, porokeratosis, disseminated superficial actinic porokeratosis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 19, 2018
- Citation
- 18143520
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 18143520.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for squamous cell carcinoma, actinic keratosis, GERD, and Barrett's esophagus due to insufficient evidence regarding their relationship to in-service sun exposure or service-connected hypertension.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for actinic keratosis, remanded the claims for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), hypothyroidism, and benign intestinal neoplasm to obtain additional medical evidence, and found no basis to grant service connection.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for PTSD, bilateral hearing loss, allergic rhinitis, sinusitis, unspecified anxiety disorder, seborrheic dermatitis, and denied increased ratings for left shoulder disability, myalgia, left-hand disability, right-hand disability, right shoulder disability, kidney stones, plantar fasciitis, lung disability, actinic keratosis, and squamous cell carcinoma. The Board remanded service connection claims for several conditions.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and actinic keratosis based on the Veteran's in-service exposure to solar radiation.
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