The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for tension headaches, bilateral knee disabilities, and bilateral ankle disabilities due to inadequate medical opinions regarding causation and secondary service connection.
The deciding factor: The VA examinations did not adequately address the Veteran's lay reports of ongoing symptoms since service and failed to consider both the caused by and aggravation avenues for secondary service-connection.
- Claimed conditions
- Tension headaches, Right knee degenerative arthritis, Left knee strain, Bilateral ankle strain
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 13, 2024
- Citation
- A24083689
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 A24083689.
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 has granted service connection for cervical spine strain, right wrist sprain, right knee strain, left knee strain, and right ankle strain. The disabilities are all deemed to have begun during the Veteran's active duty.
- Granted
The Veteran's initial evaluation for tension headaches to include migraines is granted, with a rating of 50 percent effective from May 23, 2023.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for degenerative arthritis of the spine, right knee degenerative arthritis, left knee degenerative arthritis, right ankle degenerative arthritis, and left ankle degenerative arthritis.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claim for a compensable disability rating for tension and migraine headaches is remanded due to the inadequacy of the September 2020 VA examination report, which did not consider the ameliorative effects of medication.
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