The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient evidence regarding whether the Veteran's skin conditions are related to his presumed exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner did not address the specific assertion that the right side of the Veteran's body was completely saturated with Agent Orange during service, which could be relevant to establishing presumptive service connection for a skin disability due to herbicide exposure.
- Claimed conditions
- Malignant melanoma, Seborrheic keratosis, Dermatitis
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- Agent Orange / herbicides
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 23, 2020
- Citation
- 20005449
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 880 · Granted: 26% (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 20005449.
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 PTSD is granted an initial 70 percent evaluation, effective September 23, 2024. The Veteran's dermatitis remains at a 10 percent evaluation.
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The Veteran's PTSD was granted an initial evaluation of 50 percent, dermatitis as of December 4, 2024 was granted a 10 percent evaluation, and kidney stones were denied. Service connection for allergic rhinitis and bilateral lower extremity neuropathy were also denied.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal for initial compensable rating for allergic rhinitis from August 12, 2020, to December 18, 2020 is denied. The Board has remanded the issues of service connection for dermatitis and obstructive sleep apnea due to toxic exposure risk activities during service.
- Denied
The Board denied all increased rating claims for various conditions, including allergic rhinitis, chronic sinusitis, and dermatitis. The Veteran's service connection claims were also denied.
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