Citation Nr: 18146692
Decision Date: 11/01/18	Archive Date: 10/31/18

DOCKET NO. 12-16 953
DATE:	November 1, 2018
ORDER
Service connection for hammer toes of second and third digits of the left foot, as secondary to service-connected peripheral neuropathy of the left lower extremity associated with diabetes mellitus type II (diabetes), is granted.
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. The Veteran served on active duty in the United States Army from June 1965 to February 1968.
2. The Veteran has a current diagnosis of hammer toes of the second and third digits of the left foot; the competent evidence of record does not show any other currently-diagnosed left foot disability other than hammer toes and peripheral neuropathy.
3. The Veteran is currently service-connected for diabetes and peripheral neuropathy of the left lower extremity associated with diabetes.
4. The March 2018 addendum opinion is the only adequate opinion of record addressing the presence, nature, and etiology of the Veteran’s disabilities of the left foot other than peripheral neuropathy associated with diabetes.  
5. The March 2018 VA examiner opined that the Veteran’s hammer toes of the second and third digits are “at least as likely as not [] due to the peripheral neuropathy of both [sic] lower extremities associated with the service[-]connected diabetes mellitus,” demonstrating that hammer toes are proximately due to service-connected diabetic peripheral neuropathy of the left lower extremity.
CONCLUSION OF LAW
The criteria for entitlement to service connection for hammer toes of the second and third digits of the left foot as secondary to peripheral neuropathy of the left lower extremity associated with diabetes are met.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.310.
 
S. BUSH
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	D.M. Badaczewski, Associate Counsel