The Board remands the claim for service connection of chronic cholecystitis, status post cholecystectomy, to obtain an adequate VA opinion regarding secondary causation and aggravation.
The deciding factor: Remand is necessary due to an inadequate March 2022 VA medical opinion that did not address the issue of aggravation of the Veteran's cholecystitis in relation to his service-connected irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
- Claimed conditions
- chronic cholecystitis, status post cholecystectomy
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 9, 2024
- Citation
- 24031657
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.
- Granted
The Board granted a disability rating of 30 percent for the Veteran's Crohn's disease, with status-post cholecystectomy, chronic cholecystitis, gallstone pancreatitis, and status-post resection of small intestine.
- Denied
The Board denied compensation for additional disability due to treatment at a VA medical facility in September 2022, as the proximate cause of the gallbladder and liver injuries was not due to carelessness, negligence, lack of proper skill, error in judgment, or an event not reasonably foreseeable.
- Partly granted
The Board denied an initial rating higher than 20 percent for the service-connected hepatitis C with cirrhosis of the liver, steatosis/fatty liver and status post cholecystectomy prior to October 1, 2011, granted a 100 percent rating from October 1, 2011, to March 31, 2013, and denied a rating in excess of 20 percent since March 31, 2013.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board granted the application to reopen a previously denied claim for service connection for GERD and remanded the claims for service connection for chronic peptic ulcer, chronic gastritis, status post cholecystectomy, and IBS due to insufficient medical evidence.
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