The Veteran's service connection claims for degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine with spinal stenosis and a left leg disorder, including left knee instability and radiculopathy, are granted. The left leg disorders are secondary to his newly service-connected back disability.
The deciding factor: The VA medical opinions support the existence of a nexus between the Veteran's diagnosed conditions and his service-connected degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine with spinal stenosis.
- Claimed conditions
- degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine with spinal stenosis, left leg disorder, to include left knee instability and left lower extremity radiculopathy
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 17, 2019
- Citation
- 19179377
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,316 · Granted: 43% (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 19179377.
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.
- Partly granted
The Board denied increased ratings for the Veteran's bilateral knee disabilities and lumbar spine disability, but granted a 20 percent rating for degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine with spinal stenosis from April 4, 2017 to July 13, 2020.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew their appeal for higher ratings for degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine with spinal stenosis and right knee degenerative arthritis, effectively dismissing these issues.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeal for an increased disability rating for his service-connected back disability was withdrawn by the Veteran through his representative, resulting in the dismissal of the appeal.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has denied a rating in excess of 10 percent for the period prior to August 7, 2018, and in excess of 20 percent from that date forward. The TDIU claim is also remanded due to incomplete records.
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