The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for left and right knee disabilities, including secondary to bilateral foot disabilities. The Veteran's varicose veins are found to have onset in service or be caused by service-connected conditions of the feet and lumbar spine. His depression with anxiety is found to be aggravated by service-connected conditions, including bilateral foot disabilities, lumbar spine disability, and radiculopathies into the lower extremities.
The deciding factor: The Board finds that the evidence is at least in equipoise as to whether the Veteran's varicose veins either had onset in service or were caused or aggravated by service-connected conditions of the feet and lumbar spine. For his depression with anxiety, the Board finds it at least as likely as not that the condition was aggravated by service-connected disabilities.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral varicose veins of the calves, depression with anxiety
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 14, 2019
- Citation
- 19185815
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 19185815.
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 Board granted service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, to include depression with anxiety and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), based on new evidence submitted within the appeal period.
- Dismissed
The appeal for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability, to include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), was dismissed as it was duplicative of a separate appeal.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for depression with anxiety as there was no evidence of a current psychiatric disability that met DSM-5 criteria.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for depression with anxiety, also claimed as generalized anxiety disorder. The claims for service connection for a stiff heart muscle causing shortness of breath and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and difficulty breathing were remanded.
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