The Board remands the claims for a disability rating in excess of 10 percent for service-connected right ankle sprain with instability and degenerative arthritis, non-dominant left wrist synovial cyst, and painful scar of the left hand due to an inadequate VA examination.
The deciding factor: The examination is inadequate as it does not discount the beneficial effects of medication in assessing the severity of the disability or additional functional impairment caused by flare-ups and repetitive use over time.
- Claimed conditions
- non-dominant left wrist synovial cyst, painful scar of the left hand, right ankle sprain with instability and degenerative arthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 17, 2025
- Citation
- A25035493
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,135 · Granted: 33% (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 A25035493.
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.
- Denied
The Board denied increased ratings for the Veteran's right and left ankle disabilities, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating under the applicable criteria.
- Partly granted
The veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for a non-painful scar of the left hand was granted with an effective date of March 30, 2020. The veteran's claims for readjudication of bilateral hearing loss and other conditions were remanded.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case for additional development due to lack of substantial compliance with its previous directives.
- 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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