The Board has determined that the Veteran's obstructive sleep apnea is aggravated by his service-connected chronic sinusitis and/or rhinitis, and thus grants service connection for this condition as secondary to those disabilities.
The deciding factor: The Board found the evidence in equipoise regarding whether the Veteran's obstructive sleep apnea was aggravated by his service-connected conditions, particularly chronic sinusitis and/or rhinitis, and granted service connection on a secondary basis.
- Claimed conditions
- obstructive sleep apnea, chronic sinusitis, rhinitis
- How they argued it
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 13, 2022
- Citation
- 22001897
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,035 · Granted: 30% (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 22001897.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
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 claim for service connection for obstructive sleep apnea, finding that there is no competent evidence to support a finding that his current condition began in or as a result of service.
- Denied
The Board of Veterans' Appeals (BVA) has denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for obstructive sleep apnea as there is no current diagnosis of this condition during the appeal period.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for obstructive sleep apnea, peripheral neuropathy of the bilateral upper extremities, and peripheral neuropathy of the bilateral lower extremities, finding that there was no evidence linking these conditions to his active service or any related exposure.
- Denied
The Veteran's rhinitis and gastric ulcer with hiatal hernia were evaluated, but the Board found that neither condition warranted a higher rating.,For rhinitis, the evidence did not show greater than 50 percent obstruction of both nasal passages or complete obstruction on one side. For gastric ulcer with hiatal hernia, symptoms were described as infrequent and mild.
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