The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection, increased rating, and TDIU due to incomplete evaluations and need for further medical opinions.
The deciding factor: Further VA examinations are needed to assess whether the Veteran’s lumbar spine disability is aggravated by his thoracic spine disability and to determine the severity of his compression fracture.
- Claimed conditions
- degenerative disease of the lumbar spine, compression fracture of the fourth thoracic vertebrae
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 22, 2019
- Citation
- 19179710
Veterans Law Judge
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 19179710.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran's initial 10 percent rating for migraines is granted, while a compensable rating for bilateral hearing loss is denied. Service connection is granted for pes planus, but not for degenerative disease of the lumbar spine, bilateral knee pain, hypertension, GERD, or sleep apnea and generalized anxiety disorder.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for an evaluation higher than 10 percent for cervical degenerative joint disease prior to March 5, 2019 and entitlement to a total disability based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disability (TDIU).
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to insufficient medical opinion regarding the relationship between the Veteran's service-connected cervical spine condition and his current degenerative disease of the lumbar spine.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim of increased rating for a left knee disability is denied as he withdrew his appeal without good cause. The Board also remanded the issue of TDIU due to service-connected disabilities.
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