The Board has remanded the case due to inadequate medical opinions regarding whether the Veteran's current cervical spine disability is related to service. The VA examiner failed to address the Veteran's reports of recurrent shoulder and neck pain during service and continuity of symptomatology thereafter.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner did not adequately address the Veteran’s contentions and reports of recurrent shoulder and neck pain during service and continuity of symptomatology thereafter.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative arthritis of the cervical spine with intervertebral disc syndrome (IVDS)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 4, 2019
- Citation
- 19125208
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,677 · Granted: 26% (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 19125208.
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 a 100 percent disability rating after April 1, 2023 and an increased rating in excess of 20 percent from that date due to her cervical spine disability.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for degenerative arthritis of the cervical spine with IVDS, degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine, and osteoarthritis of the left hip. The Veteran's disabilities are deemed to have started during his active duty.
- Partly granted
The Veteran's cervical spine disability was rated at 10 percent prior to February 5, 2020 and at 30 percent beginning February 5, 2020. The rating for IVDS with ulnar nerve involvement of the upper extremities remains at 10 percent.,The Veteran's cervical spine disability was rated based on symptoms such as pain and stiffness without ankylosis or other severe functional impairment.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities of the cervical spine, left upper extremity radiculopathy, and lumbar spine are remanded for additional examinations to assess their current severity. The Veteran is also remanded for service connection on the merits for a left wrist disability, left shoulder tendinitis, and chest pain.
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