The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for additional examination and opinion to reconcile conflicting medical evidence regarding bilateral knee instability during the periods on appeal.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner did not provide a diagnosis of knee instability or opine whether it had resolved, as requested in the June 2021 remand directives.
- Claimed conditions
- left knee total arthroplasty, right knee total replacement
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 7, 2022
- Citation
- 22000879
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,088 · Granted: 33% (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 22000879.
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 left knee total arthroplasty resulted in intermediate degrees of residual weakness, pain, or limitation. The Board found that a higher rating is not warranted as there was no evidence of severe painful motion or weakness.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities render him unable to secure and follow a substantially gainful occupation.
- Denied
The Board denied increased disability ratings for various conditions, including bilateral knee replacements and radiculopathies. The reduction of the 30 percent rating for cervical spine degenerative arthritis was also denied.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities, including obstructive sleep apnea and multiple musculoskeletal conditions, prevented him from securing or following a substantially gainful occupation as of January 1, 2025. The Board granted the TDIU effective from that date.
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