The Board remands the claims for a new addendum opinion to consider the ameliorative effects of medication on the Veteran's right knee and left shoulder disabilities.
The deciding factor: The Board must discount beneficial medication effects when assigning an evaluation as per recent caselaw, specifically Ingram v. Collins.
- Claimed conditions
- left shoulder derangement or impingement syndrome, right knee disability (limitation of extension), right knee disability (limitation of flexion)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 17, 2025
- Citation
- 25003633
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,820 · Granted: 26% (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 25003633.
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 Veteran's right knee and left knee disabilities have been granted higher ratings, but the tinnitus claim remains denied.
- Partly granted
The veteran's rating for unspecified depressive and anxiety disorder was increased to 100%. Other issues related to ankle and knee strains were remanded for further evaluation.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for an enlarged heart and denied evaluations greater than 10 percent for right knee instability and a right knee disability based on limitation of flexion.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for increased ratings due to inconsistencies in previous examinations and conflicting evidence regarding his right lower extremity muscle atrophy.
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