The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims of service connection for lumbar spine, left knee, and right knee conditions due to lack of medical nexus opinions addressing his in-service exposure.
The deciding factor: The VA examiners did not provide a clear opinion on whether the Veteran’s current disabilities are related to his active duty service.
- Claimed conditions
- lumbar spine degenerative disease, left knee degenerative disease, right knee degenerative disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 6, 2018
- Citation
- 18148001
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 18148001.
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 Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for bilateral hearing loss, left knee strain, and right knee degenerative disease due to incomplete development of evidence. The VA needs to obtain audiograms from May 2016 and June 2018, conduct a new VA examination for bilateral hearing loss, and provide an Addendum Opinion regarding the Veteran's bilateral knee disorder.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for other specified depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, and increased the ratings for thoracic spine degenerative changes, right knee degenerative disease, left knee degenerative disease, and right shoulder degenerative joint disease.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the issues of entitlement to service connection for left knee degenerative disease, right knee degenerative disease, and right ankle condition due to a need for further development.
- Denied
The Veteran's lumbar spine disability was not found to meet the criteria for a higher rating, as it did not demonstrate forward flexion of the thoracolumbar spine at or below 30 degrees.
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