The Board remands the Veteran's claims for increased disability ratings for his low back and left knee disabilities to ensure compliance with previous remand instructions.
The deciding factor: The remand is necessary due to insufficient medical opinions addressing functional ankylosis and the ameliorating effects of medications on the Veteran's conditions.
- Claimed conditions
- lumbosacral spine, chronic back pain with arthritis and spondylosis, degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine with spondylolisthesis and intervertebral disc syndrome (IVDS), degenerative joint disease (DJD) with loss of flexion of the left knee, degenerative joint disease (DJD) with loss of extension of the left knee
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 18, 2025
- Citation
- 25014108
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,188 · Granted: 23% (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 25014108.
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 remands the Veteran's claims for increased disability ratings for his back and left knee disabilities to ensure compliance with its previous remand instructions.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for increased disability ratings for his back and knee disabilities are remanded due to the need for clarification on whether he has had 'functional ankylosis' in either his back or left knee disabilities throughout the appeal period.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for higher ratings and TDIU due to his service-connected lumbosacral spine and left knee disabilities. The VA is instructed to schedule the Veteran for appropriate VA examinations, provide him with proper notice of these examinations, obtain all outstanding records, and ensure that he provides any additional evidence needed.
- 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.
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