The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient medical opinion regarding whether the Veteran's bilateral lower extremity peripheral neuropathy is related to his in-service herbicide exposure. The Veteran may establish service connection on a direct basis, despite not being listed as a presumptively associated disease.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner did not provide an adequate explanation for why delayed onset of peripheral neuropathy does not bear on the case from a medical perspective.
- Claimed conditions
- Peripheral neuropathy of bilateral lower extremities
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 19, 2022
- Citation
- 22070371
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 22070371.
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 claim for service connection of peripheral neuropathy of bilateral lower extremities, finding that it is less likely than not related to his military service.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for hypertension on a secondary basis to the extent it is related to the Veteran's service-connected unspecified anxiety disorder. The left knee disability, diabetes, and peripheral neuropathy of bilateral lower extremities are denied as not being related to service.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected bilateral upper and lower extremity peripheral neuropathy has prevented him from securing and maintaining substantially gainful occupation since April 2008.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for the claimed conditions, finding that there was no evidence of herbicide exposure during service and thus no basis to grant any of the claims.
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