The Board denied service connection for bilateral cataracts and optic neuropathy as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected type II diabetes mellitus, finding no competent medical evidence linking these conditions to his service or service-connected condition.
The deciding factor: There was no competent medical evidence showing a causal relationship between the Veteran's eye disabilities and either his service or his service-connected type II diabetes mellitus.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral cataracts, Optic neuropathy
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 28, 2021
- Citation
- 21005056
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 21005056.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran's bilateral eye disability, including cataracts and a choroidal nevus affecting the left eye, is not attributable to active military service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal is remanded due to pre-decisional duty to assist errors, including inadequate VA examinations and ineffective assignment of an effective date. A new VA examination is required to assess the current severity of his service-connected bilateral dry eye syndrome and cataracts, with a focus on whether a separate compensable rating for dry eye syndrome is warranted.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for bilateral cataracts and status-post eye surgery, finding that the conditions are not related to service or in-service exposures.
- Denied
The Board denied a rating greater than 20 percent for diabetes mellitus, type II, with bilateral cataracts and total disability based upon individual unemployability (TDIU) as the evidence did not support an increase in the Veteran's ratings or entitlement to TDIU.
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