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Board of Veterans' Appeals · Legacy series

Entitlement to service connection for a left knee disability is remanded.

January 30, 2026Citation Nr. 26001434Docket 16-06 542va.gov source

  • left knee disabilityRemanded
  • bilateral carpal tunnel syndromeRemanded
  • bilateral foot conditionRemanded
DecisionAnalysis

Board reasoning

The Board remands each of the claimed conditions for addendum opinions and further development to correct misidentified active duty periods and to consider the Veteran's lay statements. It emphasizes that prior examinations relied on inaccurate ACDUTRA/INACDUTRA dates and fail to address all relevant evidence, including the Veteran's statements about injuries and onset. The Board also notes that some opinions are inadequate for not considering all periods of service or all lay evidence, and it requires AOJ to obtain responsive medical opinions that explicitly address onset during or due to ACDUTRA/INACDUTRA and any injuries during INACDUTRA, before readjudication.

Issues

  • left knee disabilityRemanded
  • bilateral carpal tunnel syndromeRemanded
  • bilateral foot conditionRemanded

Authorities

  • Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268remand for compliance with remand orders and to ensure adequate medical opinions
  • Barr v. Nicholson, 21 Vet. App. 303examination must be adequate
  • Reonal v. Brown, 5 Vet. App. 458diagnostic opinions based on accurate factual premises have probative value

Extracted with gpt-5-nano-2025-08-07. Citations are kept only when they appear in the decision text.