The Board has remanded the case for further development to address the nature and etiology of any additional residual disability caused by several left knee surgeries, including pain, swelling, infection, and permanent numbness.
The deciding factor: The examination report is inadequate for rating purposes due to its failure to apply the correct legal standard for a 38 U.S.C. § 1151 claim and provide limited rationale.
- Claimed conditions
- left knee arthritis, left knee strain with residuals of left knee surgeries, total knee replacement, bilateral lower extremity neuropathy
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 7, 2020
- Citation
- 20065196
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 Board denied service connection for diabetes mellitus type II and bilateral lower extremity neuropathy, finding that the evidence did not support a causal relationship between these conditions and the Veteran's active military service.
- Dismissed
The appeal was dismissed due to the Veteran's failure to substantially comply with claims processing rules.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for left knee arthritis, right knee arthritis, and tinnitus. The increased evaluation claim for pes planus was denied, as was the increase in rating for the right wrist fracture. The reduction of the right wrist rating from 10 percent to 0 percent was found improper, restoring the 10 percent rating.
- Partly granted
The Board granted readjudication of the claims for service connection for headaches, a sleep condition (OSA), Parkinsonism (including Parkinson's disease), unspecified depressive disorder, CAD with atrial fibrillation, bilateral upper extremity neuropathy, and bilateral lower extremity neuropathy based on new evidence. The claim for hyperhidrosis was denied as no new relevant evidence was received.
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