The Board has remanded the issues of service connection for bilateral knee disabilities, lumbar spine disability, and bilateral foot disabilities due to lack of compliance with previous remand directives.
The deciding factor: The VA examiners did not provide opinions regarding whether the Veteran's knee disabilities clearly and unmistakably existed prior to his active duty service or if they were aggravated by service.
- Claimed conditions
- prepatellar effusion, right knee, prepatellar effusion, left knee, disc bulge, lumbar spine, degenerative arthritis with calcaneal spurs, right foot, degenerative arthritis with calcaneal spurs, left foot
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 27, 2023
- Citation
- 23011970
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 23011970.
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 has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection due to insufficient medical opinions regarding his knee and foot disabilities, as well as his lumbar spine disability. The issues include prepatellar effusion of both knees, degenerative arthritis with calcaneal spurs in both feet, and a disc bulge in the lumbar spine.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for an initial evaluation in excess of 10 percent for his service-connected coronary artery disease, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating based on the severity of his condition.
- Denied
The Veteran's service-connected musculoligamentous strain, right knee, is currently rated at 10 percent and the Board finds that a higher rating is not warranted.
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