The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for bilateral knee gout and arthritis due to the lack of medical records from his military service, which may affect the determination of whether these conditions are related to service.
The deciding factor: The absence of medical records from the Veteran's 20-year military career makes it difficult to determine if his current knee conditions are related to service.
- Claimed conditions
- right knee gout, left knee gout, right knee arthritis, left knee arthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 25, 2021
- Citation
- 21065258
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 21065258.
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 the Veteran's claims for earlier effective dates for various service connection and rating decisions related to gout affecting multiple joints, left foot gout, right foot gout, elbow pronation and supination gout, elbow limitation of flexion gout, thumb gout, index finger gout, long finger gout, ring and little finger gout, middle finger gout, ankle gout, knee gout, and right thumb gout. The effective dates for these decisions were not earlier than the specified dates.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew her appeal regarding the service connection for left and right knee arthritis, thus the appeal is dismissed.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that new and relevant evidence sufficient to readjudicate the previously denied claim for service connection for a right knee disability has been received. The AOJ should now consider secondary service connection in addition to the original claims.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for obstructive sleep apnea and dismissed all other appeals related to various joint conditions.
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