The Board has decided to remand the cases due to insufficient medical evidence regarding the Veteran's foot and back conditions. The Veteran needs a VA examination to determine if his current foot disorders are related to service, including whether his pre-existing pes planus was aggravated by service. Additionally, the issues of service connection for a back disorder are inextricably intertwined with the issue of service connection for a foot disorder.
The deciding factor: The Board cannot make a fully-informed decision without medical evidence regarding the Veteran's current foot disorders and their relationship to his military service.
- Claimed conditions
- Foot Disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 8, 2019
- Citation
- 19161321
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,421 · 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 19161321.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that further development is needed to address the Veteran's claims for service connection of OSA, including whether his service-connected disabilities cause or aggravate OSA and whether obesity is a substantial factor in causing OSA.
- Denied
The Board found no evidence to support the veteran's claims of service connection for a foot disorder or an eye disorder, including any exposure to harmful substances during service. The preponderance of the evidence does not link current disabilities to military service.
- Denied
The veteran's claims for service connection for various disabilities, including low back, left shoulder, bilateral knee, wrist and hand, and foot disorders are denied as there is no evidence of current disability related to service.
- 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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