The Board remands the claims for a lumbar spine disability and radiculopathy affecting both lower extremities due to missing medical records from VA facilities and an incomplete report of an MRI scan.
The deciding factor: Remand is necessary to obtain additional evidence, including VA treatment records and a complete copy of an MRI scan, before further review can be conducted.
- Claimed conditions
- Disability of the lumbar spine, Radiculopathy affecting both lower extremities
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 24, 2025
- Citation
- A25037886
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,836 · Granted: 31% (granted or partly granted, in the indexed 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. Read the original VA decision (opens in a new tab) using citation A25037886.
What this means for you
A remand sends an issue back for more development, often a new examination or missing records. It does not award the benefit or decide the final outcome. The original decision explains the additional work ordered.
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 degenerative joint disease of the lumbar spine with facet syndrome and radiculopathy affecting both lower extremities, but denied a claim for service connection for psychiatric disability as secondary to back disability. The Veteran is entitled to separate initial evaluations for these conditions.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's right hip arthritis is at least as likely as not related to service, but his right shoulder and lumbar spine disabilities are not shown to be related to service.
- Partly granted
The Veteran's claim of service connection for arthritis of the cervical spine was granted. The claim to reopen his disability of the lumbar spine was denied due to lack of new and material evidence.
- Denied
The veteran's service-connected hypertension and coronary artery disease are currently rated at 10 percent, while his disability of the lumbar spine is rated at 20 percent prior to September 26, 2003. The Board finds that these ratings adequately reflect the current level of disability.
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