The Board remands the claim for a new medical opinion to determine if the Veteran's right hand degenerative arthritis is related to his in-service injury or service-connected condition.
The deciding factor: The previous opinions were inadequate as they did not provide adequate rationale and failed to address aggravation of the non-service-connected disability by the service-connected one.
- Claimed conditions
- right hand disorder, other than residuals of fractures of the second and third metacarpals of the right hand
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 4, 2023
- Citation
- 23000436
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.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew the appeal for all issues, including service connection and rating claims.
- Dismissed
The Board dismissed the claims for increased ratings and denied a compensable rating for right shoulder scars, while remanding several other issues including service connection for a right hand disorder.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for right hand disorder, left hand disorder, and sleep apnea as well as higher ratings for GERD with esophagitis, BPPV, right hip strain, left hip strain, right knee strain, lumbosacral spine strain, cervical strain, and radiculopathy of the right lower extremity.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for various conditions due to an incomplete search of the Veteran's service records and a failure to verify reported in-service exposure to ionizing radiation.
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