The Board remands the claims for service connection of various finger disabilities or functional impairments due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error and to address whether the evidence shows symptoms sufficient to cause functional impairment of earning capacity.

The deciding factor: Remand is necessary to address whether the left and right fingers' functional impairments are related to in-service toxic exposure risk activities, including conceded herbicide agent exposure, after considering the total potential exposure through all applicable military deployments of the Veteran and the synergistic, combined effect of all toxic exposure risk activities of the Veteran.

Claimed conditions

right thumb disability or functional impairment, right index finger disability or functional impairment, right long finger disability or functional impairment, right ring finger disability or functional impairment, right little finger disability or functional impairment, left thumb disability or functional impairment, left index finger disability or functional impairment, left long finger disability or functional impairment, left ring finger disability or functional impairment, left little finger disability or functional impairment

How they argued it

Direct service connection

Exposure basis

None

Rating assigned

None in this decision

Decision date

December 18, 2025

Citation

A25109291

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