The Veteran's appeal is remanded due to inadequate examination reports and the need for a new VA ear conditions examination.
The deciding factor: The examination reports are insufficient, and a new evaluation is needed to determine the current severity of the service-connected disabilities associated with the mastoidectomy.
- Claimed conditions
- right ear chronic suppurative otitis media, residuals of mastoidectomy, scar of the right scalp
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 6, 2018
- Citation
- 18155896
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 18155896.
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.
- Denied
The Veteran's tinnitus, mastoidectomy residuals, and bilateral hearing loss are all rated at the maximum allowable under VA regulations. The Board has determined that a higher rating is not warranted for any of these conditions.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the TDIU claim due to the Veteran's assertions of worsening disabilities and his entitlement to Social Security Disability benefits. A new VA examination is needed to determine if the Veteran's service-connected conditions render him unable to maintain substantially gainful employment.
- Granted
The veteran received a schedular maximum rating of 30 percent for residuals of mastoidectomy with vertigo and tinnitus from October 23, 1992 to June 9, 1999.,From June 10, 1999, the veteran's vertigo as a residual of mastoidectomy was rated at 30 percent under Diagnostic Code 6204 and left ear tinnitus was rated at 10 percent under Diagnostic Code 6260.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
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