The Board has granted service connection for the Veteran's left knee and left ankle conditions as secondary to his service-connected right knee and right ankle conditions.
The deciding factor: The VA examiners provided medical opinions supporting that the Veteran’s left knee and left ankle conditions are at least as likely as not proximately due or the result of his service-connected right knee and right ankle conditions, based on their altered gaits leading to stress on the other joints.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative joint disease of the left knee, Arthritis of the left ankle
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 9, 2019
- Citation
- 19161816
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,893 · Granted: 31% (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 19161816.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
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The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for increased ratings due to inconsistencies in the January 2022 VA examination reports and a need for clarification regarding the Veteran's intent when filing his Notice of Disagreement. The AOJ is directed to schedule new examinations, obtain retrospective medical opinions, and clarify the severity of the Veteran's disabilities during the relevant period on appeal.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for eligibility for specially adapted housing and special home adaptation grant was denied as he does not meet the criteria for a qualifying total service-connected disability rating or loss of use of lower extremities.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for arthritis of the lumbar spine, right ankle, left ankle, and left foot on a presumptive basis due to continuous symptoms since service separation.
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