The Veteran's claims for service connection for bilateral knee and hip disabilities are reopened due to the submission of new and material evidence. However, the claims remain in remand status as further medical examination is needed to determine if his current disabilities were caused or aggravated by his service-connected lumbar spine disability.
The deciding factor: The VA examinations provided do not adequately address whether the Veteran's bilateral knee and hip disabilities are caused or aggravated by his service-connected lumbar spine disability, necessitating additional evaluation.
- Claimed conditions
- Right Knee DJD (Degenerative Joint Disease), Left Knee DJD, Right Hip DJD, Left Hip DJD
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 30, 2019
- Citation
- 19196871
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,170 · Granted: 38% (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 19196871.
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 specially adapted housing (SAH) or special home adaptation (SHA) grant due to his respiratory disability, which is presumed by the PACT Act. The Board found that the Veteran does not have a permanent and total disability resulting in anatomical loss of use of both hands, burns, or residuals of an inhalational injury.
- Denied
The Veteran's left knee disability, including DJD and arthritis, resulted in limited extension to at most 20 degrees from May 1, 2007 to February 19, 2009. For the period from May 1, 2007 to August 24, 2008, left knee flexion was limited to at most 50 degrees.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the cases for further development due to the need for additional examinations and consideration of new evidence.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for various hip, knee, and ankle disabilities as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected degenerative disc disease (DDD) and intervertebral disc disease (IVDS) of the lumbar spine.
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