The Board has ordered the VA to provide additional medical opinions regarding whether the Veteran's liver, kidney, and pancreatic cysts are at least as likely as not caused or aggravated by his service-connected COPD. The VA will need to review the relevant records and provide a rationale for their conclusions.
The deciding factor: The VA needs to obtain an addendum opinion from an appropriate clinician regarding whether the Veteran's liver, kidney, and pancreatic cysts are at least as likely as not proximately due to service-connected COPD.
- Claimed conditions
- Liver cyst, Kidney cyst, Pancreatic cyst
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 14, 2019
- Citation
- 19186040
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,084 · Granted: 20% (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 19186040.
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.
- Partly granted
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for a liver cyst, finding no current disability. The claim for an autoimmune disease was remanded for further evidence.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for a kidney cyst, fibromyalgia, and a lung disability due to a pre-decisional duty-to-assist error.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for service connection for a liver cyst disability was received within one year of the date he submitted an Intent to File a claim, which is considered his effective date. The Board determined that the correct effective date for this grant of service connection is November 9, 2021.
- Denied
The Veteran's service connection claims for impaired fasting glucose, ischemic heart disease, peripheral neuropathy of the upper and lower extremities, cataracts, vitreous degeneration, right knee disability, left foot and right foot plantar fasciitis, IBS, diverticulosis, cholelithiasis, inguinal hernia, prostate enlargement, hypertrophy of the prostate, kidney cyst, microscopic hematuria, thick walled bladder, esophagitis, eosinophilic esophagitis, and stricture and stenosis of esophagus have all been denied.,The Veteran's service connection claims are not supported by evidence showing a current disability or a relationship to service.
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