The Board has decided to remand the claims for bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome due to insufficient medical opinions regarding whether the condition is aggravated by service-connected diabetes mellitus.
The deciding factor: The VA medical opinions did not address the relationship between elevated glucose levels and carpal tunnel syndrome, nor did they provide clear separate findings and rationales relating to causation and aggravation.
- Claimed conditions
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Diabetes Mellitus
- How they argued it
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 22, 2019
- Citation
- 19180178
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 increased ratings for diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and a psychiatric disability due to insufficient evidence of the severity required for higher ratings.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for an earlier effective date for his diabetes mellitus, a higher rating for PTSD with alcohol use disorder, and a total disability rating due to service-connected disabilities.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for a heart disability, diabetes mellitus, and peripheral neuropathy of the lower extremities, but denied service connection for multiple tooth trauma.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the case to obtain a medical opinion addressing whether the Veteran's service-connected PTSD caused or aggravated his cardiovascular diseases, which were listed as contributing causes of death.
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