The Veteran's cervical spine surgery is not service connected. The Board has remanded the cases for further examination and rating considerations due to the Veteran's assertions of worsening symptoms.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's cervical spine condition is not service-connected, and his claims are being remanded as he reported worsening symptoms since his last VA examination.
- Claimed conditions
- Cervical spine surgery, Left knee strain with osteoarthritis, Right knee chondromalacia patella with osteoarthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 12, 2022
- Citation
- 22045870
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 22045870.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the case to correct pre-decisional duty to assist errors, including obtaining private treatment and Social Security Administration records.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran seeks earlier effective dates for the grant of service connection for anxiety disorder NOS, left knee strain with osteoarthritis, and left ankle strain with degenerative arthritis. The Board finds that an updated VA examination is necessary to correct a pre-decisional duty to assist error.,The Veteran also seeks increased ratings for his service-connected anxiety disorder NOS, left knee strain with osteoarthritis, and left ankle strain with degenerative arthritis. The Board finds that a new VA examination is necessary to determine the current level of severity of these disabilities.
- Granted
The Veteran's right knee disability was granted a 20 percent rating for recurrent subluxation from December 21, 2022. A separate 20 percent rating was also granted for cartilage damage from December 3, 2021. The Veteran's PTSD was rated at 70 percent from February 19, 2021 to July 23, 2022 and TDIU based solely on PTSD was granted starting from the same date.
- Denied
The Veteran's status-post MRSA infection prior to October 9, 2019 does not meet the criteria for a compensable disability rating.,The Veteran's left knee strain with osteoarthritis has not met the criteria for a disability rating greater than 10 percent before March 21, 2019 and after June 1, 2019 (status-post arthroscopy surgery).,The Veteran's right knee strain with osteoarthritis since June 1, 2019 has not met the criteria for a disability rating greater than 10 percent.
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