The Board remands the claims for a new VA examination to address the severity of the Veteran's service-connected conditions, including lumbar spine and bilateral knee disabilities, as well as lower extremity radiculopathy.
The deciding factor: The current examinations are inadequate due to failure to consider medication effects and other factors required by recent court decisions.
- Claimed conditions
- Left knee strain, Right knee strain, Lumbar spine condition, Left lower extremity sciatic radiculopathy, Right lower extremity sciatic radiculopathy, Left lower extremity femoral nerve radiculopathy, Right lower extremity femoral nerve radiculopathy
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 28, 2025
- Citation
- A25047280
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.
- Granted
The Board granted earlier effective dates of June 2, 2023, for the grant of service connection for various conditions and eligibility to Dependents' Educational Assistance.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for left and right lower extremity sciatic radiculopathy and a separate evaluation for left knee instability, finding that the evidence did not support higher evaluations.
- Partly granted
The Board denied an initial compensable rating for erectile dysfunction and remanded the claims for a higher rating for spondylolisthesis with degenerative disc disease, left and right lower extremity sciatic radiculopathy, and service connection for migraines.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus, while remanding claims for depression, anxiety, sleep disorder, right knee strain, left knee strain, and lumbar spine strain.
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