The Board granted a 50 percent rating for the service-connected back disability and an effective date of July 7, 2015, for the grant of service connection for right lower extremity sciatic radiculopathy.

The deciding factor: The evidence was in relative equipoise as to whether the Veteran's back disability symptomatology more nearly approximated unfavorable ankylosis of the entire thoracolumbar spine, but it did not more nearly approximate unfavorable ankylosis of the entire spine. The earliest date for which entitlement arose for right lower extremity sciatic radiculopathy was July 7, 2015.

Claimed conditions

degenerative arthritis and intervertebral disc syndrome of lumbosacral spine with spinal stenosis, history of lumbar strain, right lower extremity sciatic radiculopathy

How they argued it

Direct service connection

Exposure basis

None

Rating assigned

50%

Decision date

January 31, 2025

Citation

A25009110

Want to see how appeals like this one tend to go? Appeals like mine