The Veteran's eye and vision disorders, including open angle glaucoma, were found to be related to service. However, the remand is necessary for clarification on whether her in-service diagnoses of preglaucoma and glaucoma-suspect are the beginning of or a distinct disorder from her current diagnosis.
The deciding factor: The examiner needs to clarify whether the Veteran's in-service diagnoses were the beginning of or precursor to her currently diagnosed open angle glaucoma, as well as determine if any other identified eye or vision disorders were caused by service.
- Claimed conditions
- open angle glaucoma, presbyopia, myopia, astigmatism, idiopathic corneal edema
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 4, 2019
- Citation
- 19100846
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.
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The Board dismissed the appeal for service connection for a mental health condition and denied service connection for an eye condition. The claims for autoimmune limbic encephalitis with non-paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis (NPLE) with GAD65 antibodies and dystonia and dystonic tremor were remanded.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an initial 40 percent disability rating for bilateral eye disabilities but denied ratings for abdominal scars, hypertension, and remanded claims related to thrombosis and arthritis.
- Dismissed
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- Dismissed
The veteran's appeal was denied as the Board Appeal request was not timely filed within one year of the rating decisions issued on August 17, 2022, November 16, 2022, July 7, 2023, November 3, 2023, December 12, 2023, and March 14, 2024.
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