The Board remands the issues of entitlement to a higher disability rating for varicose veins of both lower extremities due to insufficient medical opinions regarding the effects of medication.
The deciding factor: Insufficient medical opinion addressing the effects of medication on the severity of the Veteran's varicose veins.
- Claimed conditions
- varicose veins of the left lower extremity, varicose veins of the right lower extremity
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 30, 2025
- Citation
- 25015334
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,170 · Granted: 38% (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 25015334.
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 decided to remand the Veteran's claim for service connection of varicose veins of the right lower extremity due to a duty-to-assist error in pre-decisional duty-to-assist. The case will be returned to the AOJ for further review.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for an effective date of February 14, 2022, for the 70 percent non-initial staged rating for service-connected adjustment disorder with anxiety and depressed mood is granted.,The Veteran's claim for an effective date of March 27, 2022, for service connection for sciatic radiculopathy of the right lower extremity is granted.,The Veteran's claim for an effective date of March 27, 2022, for service connection for sciatic radiculopathy of the left lower extremity is granted.,The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date of August 16, 2023, for the 10 percent non-initial staged rating for service-connected varicose veins of the right lower extremity is granted.,The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date of August 16, 2023, for the 10 percent non-initial staged rating for service-connected varicose veins of the left lower extremity is granted.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for an initial compensable rating for varicose veins of the right lower extremity as the evidence did not show intermittent edema or aching and fatigue in the leg after prolonged standing or walking, with symptoms relieved by elevation of extremity or compression hosiery.
- Partly granted
The Board granted a 40 percent disability rating for varicose veins of the left and right lower extremities, effective October 8, 2021.
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