Citation Nr: 18145491
Decision Date: 10/29/18	Archive Date: 10/29/18

DOCKET NO. 08-37 109
DATE:	October 29, 2018
REMANDED
Entitlement to service connection for a right knee disorder, claimed as right knee cartilage damage with bone spurs, is remanded.
REASONS FOR REMAND
The Veteran served on active duty from March 1976 to June 1986.
This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) from an August 2005 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). 
This matter has a long procedural history. Most recently, in December 2016, the Board remanded the claim for additional development in accordance with a June 2016 Memorandum Decision issued by the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. 
In November 2017 and August 2018, the Board remanded for further evidentiary development. 
1. Entitlement to service connection of a right knee disorder is remanded.
Subsequent to the August 2018 remand, this matter was returned to the Board for adjudication without any action taken on the August 2018 remand. As there has not been substantial compliance with the Board’s prior remand instructions, another remand is required. See Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268 (1998). 
Relevant ongoing medical records should also be requested.
The matter is REMANDED for the following actions:
1. Obtain the Veteran’s updated treatment records.
2. Schedule the Veteran for an examination by an appropriate clinician, preferably an orthopedist,    who has not examined the Veteran previously, to determine the nature and etiology of any right knee disability diagnosed during the pendency of the appeal (dating to May 2003), to include the diagnosed status-post arthroscopic knee surgery, debridement of the right knee with residual scar. 
The examiner must opine whether any disability diagnosed during the pendency of the appeal is at least as likely as not related to an in-service injury, event, or disease, including the in-service incident in which the Veteran fell and hit his right knee on a rock. In writing the opinion, the examiner should specifically note the July 2018 appellate brief, suggesting that the knee disability was an example of posttraumatic arthritis, and list the reasons for agreeing     or disagreeing with that suggestion.  
If the examiner diagnoses an arthritic disability of the right knee, confirmed by X-rays, the examiner should opine whether the disability at least as likely as not       (1) began during active service, (2) manifested within one year after the Veteran’s June 1986 discharge from 
service, or (3) was noted during service with continuity of the same symptomatology since service.
 
K. A. BANFIELD
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	M. C. Birder, Associate Counsel