Citation Nr: 18141104
Decision Date: 10/09/18	Archive Date: 10/09/18

DOCKET NO. 13-30 974
DATE:	October 9, 2018
REMANDED
Entitlement to an initial disability rating in excess of 10 percent prior to August 14, 2015, and in excess of 40 percent since, for degenerative arthritis of the spine is remanded.
REASONS FOR REMAND
The Veteran served on active duty from November 1984 to November 1988.  In January 2016, he testified at a Board hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge.  A transcript of the proceeding is of record.
Entitlement to an initial disability rating in excess of 10 percent prior to August 14, 2015, and in excess of 40 percent since, for degenerative arthritis of the spine is remanded.
While the record contains the report of a contemporaneous VA examination dated in September 2017 regarding the Veteran’s service-connected degenerative arthritis of the spine, the examination does not comply with the requirements in Sharp v. Shulkin, 29 Vet. App. 26 (2017), in terms of denoting any additional functional loss during flare-ups of the Veteran’s disability.  Notably, the Veteran reported experiencing a numbness sensation and pain in his legs and right hip during flare-ups.  However, the VA examiner did not address whether the Veteran’s reports amounted to radiculopathy of the lower extremities or whether the Veteran had any other clinical findings as a result of his reported flare-ups.  Remand therefore is needed for a new VA examination with more comprehensive findings in compliance with Sharp.
Since the claims file is being returned it should be updated to include any outstanding VA treatment records.  See 38 C.F.R. § 3.159(c)(2); see also Bell v. Derwinski, 2 Vet. App. 611 (1992).
The matter is REMANDED for the following action:
1. Obtain and associate with the claims file any available VA treatment records regarding the Veteran’s disability at issue.
2. Then schedule the Veteran for an examination reassessing the severity of the service-connected degenerative arthritis of his spine.  To this end, the examiner must test and provide range-of-motion findings for the Veteran’s spine on active motion, passive motion, and pain with weight-bearing and with nonweight-bearing.  The examiner must attempt to elicit information regarding the severity, frequency, and duration of any flare-ups, and the degree of functional loss during flare-ups.  The examiner must also specifically comment on whether this disability involves any functional limitation of the spine.  To the extent possible, the examiner should identify any symptoms and functional impairments due to degenerative arthritis of the spine alone and discuss the effect of the Veteran’s disability on any occupational functioning and activities of daily living.  An opinion regarding flare-ups should be based on information available in the claims file as to frequency, duration, characteristics, severity or functional loss, to include lay statements.  Specifically, the examiner is asked to comment on the Veteran’s reports of experiencing numbness and pain in his legs and right hip during flare-up and address whether these symptoms amount to radiculopathy or any other finding.  If it is not possible to provide a specific measurement, or an opinion regarding flare-ups, symptoms, or functional impairment without speculation, the examiner must state whether the need to speculate is due to a deficiency in the state of general medical knowledge (no one could respond given medical science and the known facts), a deficiency in the record (additional facts are required), or the examiner does not have the knowledge or training.
 
KEITH W. ALLEN
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	Jack S. Komperda, Counsel