The Board denied service connection for a thoracic spine disability, finding that the Veteran's osteoarthritis of the thoracic spine did not have onset during his active service and was not caused by or linked to his military service.
The deciding factor: The preponderance of evidence is against finding a medical nexus between the Veteran’s current thoracic condition and an in-service injury, as there are no contradictory medical opinions of record and the first mention of treatment for the disability was more than 40 years after separation from active duty service.
- Claimed conditions
- osteoarthritis of the thoracic spine
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 19, 2019
- Citation
- 19119718
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 940 · Granted: 21% (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 19119718.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for service connection for osteoarthritis of the thoracic spine was granted with an effective date set at May 2, 2019.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claim for a higher rating for his service-connected osteoarthritis of the thoracic spine is remanded due to an incomplete VA examination.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to inadequate reasons or bases for denying an increased evaluation for the Veteran's service-connected low back disability. The Court found that the Board failed to address evidence indicating additional functional loss and disregarded the Veteran's statements about pain and movement limitations.
- Denied
The Board denied a higher rating for the Veteran's lumbosacral strain with osteoarthritis of the thoracic spine, finding that his disability did not meet or more nearly approximate the criteria for a rating in excess of 20 percent.
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