The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for cervical and lumbar spine disabilities, finding that there was no evidence of a nexus between his current conditions and military service. The secondary service connection claim for left knee disability-related spinal issues was also denied.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner determined that the Veteran’s cervical and lumbar spine disabilities are less likely related to military service due to lack of documentation in service records and the long time interval between service and symptom onset.
- Claimed conditions
- cervical spondylosis with myelopathy, lumbar degenerative joint and disc disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 29, 2019
- Citation
- 19106490
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,240 · Granted: 28% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
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 19106490.
What this means for you
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What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Veteran's lumbar spine disability and obstructive sleep apnea were not found to warrant increased ratings or service connection, respectively.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim of service connection for lumbar degenerative joint and disc disease, finding that the evidence is in relative equipoise as to whether his current low back disability was related to an injury sustained during active duty.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's low back disability and associated lower extremity radicular symptoms are currently rated at 10 percent prior to June 1, 2014, and 40 percent from July 17, 2014. The Board has found that higher ratings are not warranted for either period.,The Veteran's right and left lower extremity radicular symptoms have been rated at 10 percent prior to March 6, 2013, and 20 percent since then. The Board has also found that higher ratings are not warranted for these periods.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's knee and shoulder disabilities are being remanded for further evaluation due to the need for updated VA examinations.
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