The Board has remanded the case due to a need for another VA examination to determine if the Veteran's bilateral knee pain is productive of functional impairment and whether it is at least as likely as not caused by or resulting from an injury, illness, or event during his active service.
The deciding factor: The Court held that pain alone can qualify as a disability for VA purposes, but further development is needed to determine the nature and etiology of any bilateral knee disability.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral knee disability
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 26, 2019
- Citation
- 19114213
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,156 · Granted: 29% (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 19114213.
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 Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for a bilateral shoulder disability and increased ratings for her bilateral knee disabilities, finding no evidence of in-service injury or disease related to these conditions.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for a neurological examination to determine if any diagnosed radiculopathy or other neurological disability affecting the lower extremities was caused or aggravated by service-connected conditions.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected knee disabilities were granted effective from January 2, 2022. The Board also remanded other issues including back and skin disorders.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has dismissed the issues of higher initial ratings for service-connected bilateral knee disability, migraine variants, and bilateral hearing loss as well as service connection for generalized anxiety disorder. The issues of service connection for right elbow lateral epicondylitis and left elbow lateral epicondylitis are remanded due to insufficient medical opinions regarding their etiology. Service connection for depression is also remanded due to conflicting diagnoses.
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