The Veteran's left knee replacement disability is currently rated at 30 percent, and the Board has ordered a remand to determine if it warrants an increased rating.
The deciding factor: The October 2016 VA examination did not fully comply with the requirements of Sharp v. Shulkin (2017) due to lack of information on functional loss during flare-ups.
- Claimed conditions
- Left Knee Replacement
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 26, 2019
- Citation
- 19196264
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,156 · Granted: 29% (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 19196264.
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 left knee disability is rated at 30 percent for the total knee replacement and a 10 percent rating for the scar. The appeal was granted on both issues.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for a psychiatric disorder due to military sexual trauma (MST) and remanded the claims for HIV-related illness, hypertension, left knee replacement, and sleep apnea.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims for increased ratings for her left and right knee replacements, finding that there was no evidence of severe painful motion or weakness in either knee.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's eligibility for enrollment in the VA Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) is remanded due to a legally inadequate medical opinion. The Board finds that further clarification and explanation are needed regarding the Veteran's need for personal care services, supervision, or instruction.
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