The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for arthritis of the bilateral shoulders and hands due to insufficient evidence addressing continuity of symptoms during and since service.
The deciding factor: The VA opinions did not address whether the Veteran’s current shoulder and hand arthritis is related to his in-service martial arts training or duties as a trombonist, which are factors that could support service connection.
- Claimed conditions
- arthritis of the bilateral shoulders, arthritis of the bilateral hands
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 29, 2019
- Citation
- 19166785
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 19166785.
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 service connection for arthritis of the bilateral hands, left shoulder disability, and right shoulder disability as there was no evidence to support a current disability or a relationship to service.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for right knee osteoarthritis, finding it was aggravated by the Veteran's service-connected muscle spasm disorder due to meningitis. The issue of entitlement to service connection for arthritis of the bilateral hands is remanded.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for thoracolumbar spondylosis with degenerative joint disease and remanded claims for internal derangement of the left knee with meniscectomy, bilateral pes planus, arthritis of the shoulders, elbows, hands and fingers, legs, diabetes mellitus, hypertension.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for arthritis of the cervical spine, bilateral knees, bilateral elbows, and bilateral shoulders to obtain new VA medical opinions that adequately address whether these conditions are related to military service or aggravated by service-connected disabilities.
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