The Board has decided to remand the Veteran's claims for bilateral knee disorders due to conflicting medical opinions and a need for clarification. The case will be returned for further evaluation.
The deciding factor: There is significant discrepancy among previous VA and private medical opinions regarding the etiology of the Veteran’s current bilateral knee disabilities, necessitating a clarifying opinion from an appropriate VA examiner.
- Claimed conditions
- left knee chondromalacia patella with degenerative joint disease, right knee chondromalacia patella with degenerative joint disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 29, 2019
- Citation
- 19181185
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 19181185.
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 disability rating for left knee chondromalacia patella with degenerative joint disease was reduced from 30 percent to 10 percent. The Board has restored the 30 percent rating effective January 1, 2021.
- Granted
The Veteran is granted entitlement to specially adapted housing due to his service-connected disabilities, which preclude locomotion without the aid of a cane. The issue of eligibility for a special home adaptation grant is dismissed as moot.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's appeals for increased rating and service connection due to untimely filing of her substantive appeal.
- Dismissed
The Board dismissed the appeal as the appellant requested to withdraw all remaining issues, including service connection for bilateral hearing loss and higher evaluations for knee and shoulder conditions, due to a full grant of TDIU.
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