The Board remands the claim for service connection for bilateral sacroiliitis as secondary to a service-connected lumbar spine condition due to an inadequate medical opinion.
The deciding factor: An addendum opinion is needed to determine if the Veteran's bilateral sacroiliitis was aggravated by his service-connected lumbar spine IVDS, including degenerative arthritis and spinal stenosis.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral sacroiliitis
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 9, 2025
- Citation
- A25105620
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,432 · Granted: 29% (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 A25105620.
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 Veteran's lumbar spine disability is rated at 40 percent from April 1, 2015. The claim for an increased rating remains on appeal.,Right lower extremity radiculopathy of the sciatic nerve was granted a separate 10 percent rating effective January 31, 2022.
- Granted
The Veteran's back disorder, diagnosed as L5-S1 facet joint arthroplasty with neuroforaminal stenosis and bilateral sacroiliitis, is related to an injury incurred during his training in Officer Candidate School (OCS) in 1974. The Board granted service connection for this condition.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for an initial rating in excess of 40 percent for his low back disability, finding that the evidence did not show unfavorable ankylosis of the entire thoracolumbar spine or entire spine.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for bilateral sacroiliitis, finding that the Veteran's current condition is related to his military duties as a martial arts instructor during active service.
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