The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient medical opinions regarding whether the Veteran's current back disability is related to his in-service injury. The examiner should consider whether later development of arthritis or compression deformities may be due to the in-service injury, even if not present at the time.
The deciding factor: The VA medical opinion did not account for the possibility that the residuals of the in-service injury manifested with symptoms only after a period of time.
- Claimed conditions
- multilevel degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine, mild compression deformities in the mid to low thoracic levels, levoscoliosis in the thoracolumbar spine region
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 18, 2019
- Citation
- 19195166
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 19195166.
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 Veteran's service-connected disabilities do not meet the criteria for a special home adaptation grant as they do not result in anatomical loss or use of both hands, blindness in both eyes, deep partial thickness burns, full thickness or subdermal burns, or residuals of an inhalation injury.
- Granted
The Board granted earlier effective dates for the initial 20 percent and subsequent 40 percent ratings for service-connected multilevel degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine, as well as for service connection for right and left lower extremity radiculopathies.
- Granted
The Veteran is granted a total disability rating based on unemployability due to service-connected disabilities prior to March 29, 2018. The issue of entitlement to a TDIU from March 29, 2018 was dismissed as moot.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew his appeal for the initial evaluations of his spine and radiculopathy conditions. The Board dismissed the case as a result.
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