The Board has remanded the cases for additional development and examination to address the Veteran's claims of service connection for bilateral cataracts as secondary to his service-connected glomerulonephritis with hypertension (kidney disability) and a compensable rating for retinopathy.
The deciding factor: The Board found that an additional VA opinion is necessary due to inadequate opinions in previous evaluations regarding the etiology of the Veteran's cataracts and the severity of his retinopathy.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral cataracts, Glomerulonephritis with hypertension (kidney disability), Retinopathy
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 7, 2019
- Citation
- 19161161
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,432 · 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 19161161.
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 has determined that the Veteran's bilateral eye disability, including cataracts and a choroidal nevus affecting the left eye, is not attributable to active military service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal is remanded due to pre-decisional duty to assist errors, including inadequate VA examinations and ineffective assignment of an effective date. A new VA examination is required to assess the current severity of his service-connected bilateral dry eye syndrome and cataracts, with a focus on whether a separate compensable rating for dry eye syndrome is warranted.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's TDIU claim is remanded due to the need for a combined effects VA opinion on the impact of his service-connected disabilities since January 12, 2024. The AOJ should obtain this opinion and consider all conditions in determining whether he can secure or follow substantially gainful employment.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for bilateral cataracts and status-post eye surgery, finding that the conditions are not related to service or in-service exposures.
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