The Veteran's appeal is remanded for additional development regarding his left knee disability and hypothyroidism. The Board finds a need to obtain clarification of the etiology of the Veteran’s reported symptoms and their relationship, if any, to his disabilities.
The deciding factor: The examination reports are inadequate as they do not address the severity of the Veteran's flare-ups or provide an opinion on the functional loss during such periods.
- Claimed conditions
- dislocated semilunar cartilage of the left knee, left knee rheumatoid arthritis with degenerative arthritis and osteopenia, hypothyroidism
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 3, 2019
- Citation
- 19176490
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 a deviated septum and denied compensable ratings for allergic rhinitis, chronic sinusitis, hypothyroidism, and hypertension.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for hypothyroidism, as it is presumptively linked to herbicide agent exposure during the Veteran's service in Vietnam.
- Denied
The Board denied an initial compensable disability rating for service-connected hypothyroidism and remanded the claim for service connection for lipomas (claimed as cysts surgery).
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for hypothyroidism secondary to in-service toxic exposure risk activity (TERA) based on the Veteran's conceded in-service jet fuel fumes exposure.
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