The Board remands the claims for service connection for various bilateral joint strains and disorders, as additional medical evidence is needed to address their relationship to the Veteran's in-service pain.
The deciding factor: Remand necessary due to a duty-to-assist error regarding obtaining an opinion on the nature and etiology of the Veteran's current bilateral elbow, hip, knee, and shoulder disorders related to his in-service pain.
- Claimed conditions
- right elbow disorder, left elbow disorder, left hip strain, right hip strain, left knee strain, right knee strain, left shoulder strain, right shoulder strain
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- Gulf War
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 8, 2025
- Citation
- A25041750
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 916 · Granted: 40% (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 A25041750.
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 determined that the AOJ did not obtain all necessary opinions regarding whether the Veteran's symptoms are related to an undiagnosed illness or medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illness (MUCMI). The claims for service connection for fatigue, fibromyalgia, left elbow disorder, right elbow disorder, and sleep disorder are remanded for further development.
- Denied
The Board has denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for right shoulder strain as there is no evidence of a chronic condition in service or within one year after discharge, and the medical opinion found that his current condition is not related to his military service.
- Dismissed
The Board dismissed the appeals for service connection of various conditions due to untimely filing of the appeal.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for service connection for left knee strain, right knee strain, shin splints of the right leg, and shin splints of the left leg are being remanded due to a failure to obtain VA examinations and medical nexus opinions.
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