The Board has granted service connection for the Veteran's lumbar spine disability and left lower extremity radiculopathy, finding that these conditions are secondary to his service-connected left knee and left ankle disabilities.
The deciding factor: The private medical opinion concluded that the Veteran’s spine disability is more likely than not related to or aggravated by his service-connected left knee and left ankle disabilities, which led to changes in gait and increased wear and tear on the lumbar spine.
- Claimed conditions
- lumbar spine disability (now claimed as lumbar spine condition to include Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD) at L4-L5, L5-S1), left lower extremity radiculopathy
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 4, 2019
- Citation
- 19191428
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,446 · Granted: 21% (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 19191428.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for a lumbar spine disability, left lower extremity radiculopathy, and right lower extremity radiculopathy as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected lumbar spine disability.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for left lower extremity radiculopathy and denied the claims for right knee disability, erectile dysfunction, GERD, sleep apnea, and hypertension. The decision is remanded for further action on these issues.
- Granted
The Board has granted earlier effective dates for the grant of service connection for middle and index trigger finger/stenosing tenosynovitis of the right hand, left lower extremity radiculopathy, and right lower extremity radiculopathy. The earliest effective date is June 30, 2012, for the right hand condition and April 22, 2016, for bilateral lower extremity radiculopathy.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran does not have left lower extremity radiculopathy or any related symptoms causing impairment in earning capacity during the appeal period, and therefore service connection for this condition is denied.
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