The Veteran's initial ratings for his left hand disabilities are being remanded due to the need for additional examinations and updated medical records.
The deciding factor: The decision is based on the need for a new VA examination to assess current severity of the disabilities and obtain updated treatment records.
- Claimed conditions
- left thumb neuropathy, left thumb sprain, arthralgia, and decreased extension, left-hand residual scar, left fourth finger deformity
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 3, 2019
- Citation
- 19142448
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,762 · Granted: 24% (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 19142448.
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.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew his appeal for increased ratings of various left-hand conditions, including thumb neuropathy, hand scars, and thumb disability.
- Granted
The Veteran's left thumb neuropathy is currently rated at 20 percent, but no higher. The Board found that the symptoms more closely approximated moderate incomplete paralysis of the median nerve.
- Denied
The Veteran's initial compensable disability ratings for left thumb degenerative arthritis and neuropathy have been denied as the evidence does not support a finding of limitation of motion or ankylosis.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
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