The Board has found the March 2018 examination inadequate and remanded for additional development, including a new opinion from the examiner regarding the Veteran's right ankle disorder.
The deciding factor: The VA medical provider must provide an opinion addressing whether it is at least as likely as not that the claimed right ankle disorder was incurred during service or is otherwise related to his service.
- Claimed conditions
- right ankle synovitis, status post synovectomy
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 17, 2019
- Citation
- 19178963
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,548 · 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 19178963.
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.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for tinnitus and denied service connection for bilateral hearing loss, an abnormal gait, right ankle synovitis, right ankle scars, Morton's neuroma, right hammer toe, and a low back disability.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for increased ratings are remanded due to the need for additional medical examinations and review of non-VA treatment records.
- Granted
The Veteran's death was not service-connected, but the appellant paid for his burial expenses and filed a timely claim. The Board found that the criteria for nonservice-connected burial benefits were met.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for left ankle synovitis, right ankle synovitis, and bilateral foot arthritis. The decision is based on the Veteran's in-service parachute jumps and her current diagnoses of synovitis and arthritis.
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