The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection and increased ratings due to insufficient evidence. The Veteran is presumed to have incurred a left shoulder disability in service, but the VA examiner found no direct link between his current condition and service.
The deciding factor: VA examiner did not find sufficient medical evidence linking the current left shoulder degenerative arthritis to service.
- Claimed conditions
- left shoulder degenerative arthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 3, 2023
- Citation
- 23000054
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,858 · Granted: 24% (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 23000054.
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 Veteran's appeal is remanded for additional development, including obtaining clarification from the August 2017 VA examiner regarding which symptoms are related to his service-connected left trapezius strain and whether any non-service-connected conditions represent a progression of that disability.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for bilateral shoulder degenerative arthritis, finding that the Veteran's current condition is proximately due to his military activities.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for degenerative arthritis of the spine, but denied service connection for left shoulder and right shoulder degenerative arthritis.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for the Veteran's left shoulder disability, including rotator cuff tear with degenerative arthritis and tendonitis, finding that it is related to his military service.
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