The Veteran's bilateral knee disabilities and lumbar spine strain have been evaluated, but no increased ratings are warranted.,Specifically, the Veteran's left and right knees do not meet criteria for a compensable disability rating due to instability or recurrent subluxation. The Veteran’s lumbar spine strain has been granted with a specific rating, but no higher.
The deciding factor: The medical evidence does not establish that the Veteran's knee disabilities manifested severe lateral instability or recurrent subluxation from June 27, 2018 onwards, and his lumbar spine strain did not meet criteria for an increased disability rating.
- Claimed conditions
- Osteoarthritis of the left knee, Osteoarthritis of the right knee, Lumbar spine strain
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 5, 2019
- Citation
- 19115759
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,515 · Granted: 20% (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 19115759.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
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The Board denied service connection for bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus, while remanding claims for depression, anxiety, sleep disorder, right knee strain, left knee strain, and lumbar spine strain.
- Granted
The Veteran was granted a total disability rating due to individual unemployability from December 2, 2019 to June 15, 2021 on an extraschedular basis.
- Remanded (sent back)
The claims for higher initial ratings for degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine, osteoarthritis of the right and left knees, and left ankle strain are remanded due to inadequate VA compensation examination reports.
- Partly granted
The Veteran's service connection for PTSD was granted, while other claims for increased ratings were denied or partially granted.
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