Citation Nr: 18150836 Decision Date: 11/15/18 Archive Date: 11/15/18 DOCKET NO. 17-49 873 DATE: November 15, 2018 ORDER Entitlement to service connection for a left wrist disorder is denied. Entitlement to service connection for a right wrist disorder is denied. Entitlement to service connection for a left ankle disorder is denied. Entitlement to service connection for a right ankle disorder is denied. FINDINGS OF FACT 1. The Veteran does not have a left wrist disorder. 2. The Veteran does not have a right wrist disorder. 3. The Veteran does not have a left ankle disorder. 4. The Veteran does not have a right ankle disorder. CONCLUSIONS OF LAW 1. The criteria for entitlement to service connection for a left wrist disorder have not been met. 38 U.S.C. § 1110 (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303 (2018). 2. The criteria for entitlement to service connection for a right wrist disorder have not been met. 38 U.S.C. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303. 3. The criteria for entitlement to service connection for a left ankle disorder have not been met. 38 U.S.C. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303. 4. The criteria for entitlement to service connection for a right ankle disorder have not been met. 38 U.S.C. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS 1. Entitlement to service connection for a left wrist disorder is denied. 2. Entitlement to service connection for a right wrist disorder is denied. 3. Entitlement to service connection for a left ankle disorder is denied. 4. Entitlement to service connection for a right ankle disorder is denied. The Veteran served from June 1992 to June 1996, and from June 1998 to August 2016. In September 2016 he sought service connection for, among other disorders, a bilateral wrist disorder and a bilateral ankle disorder. Service connection requires competent evidence of (1) a current disability; (2) the incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury during service; and (3) a causal relationship between the current disability and the disease or injury incurred or aggravated during service. Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163 (Fed. Cir. 2004). Service connection may be granted for any disease diagnosed after discharge when all the evidence, including that pertinent to service, establishes that the disease was incurred in service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(d). The Veteran was afforded VA examinations for his wrists and ankles in October 2016. The VA medical examiner provided thorough physical examinations for the wrists and the ankles, guided in each case by the correct VA disability benefits questionnaire. He found no diagnosed disability for either the wrists or the ankles. The Board notes that there is very limited evidence in the Veteran’s service treatment records (STRs) to bolster the Veteran’s claims. The May 1996 discharge examination at the end of the Veteran’s first tour noted no wrist or ankle disorder. In an April 2005 medical report the Veteran denied any wrist pain, as he did again in November 2011. In September 2015, the Veteran presented at an Army medical clinic with a complaint of intermittent bilateral wrist pain that had begun four months earlier and was associated with use of the gym. He was treated with a topical anti-inflammatory and instructed to return in one week, if symptoms persisted, for consideration of an X-ray and physical therapy. The Board notes no evidence that the Veteran returned to clinic for a wrist problem thereafter. The STRs show that the Veteran sprained his ankle in April 2006 and was put on a two-week profile of no running or carrying a rucksack. The Board locates in the STRs no record of other or further ankle injuries. The Board notes that the October 2016 examiner did not review the STRs but finds that the sparse record of in-service complaints or treatment for wrist or ankle injuries does not compel a new medical review, because there is no medical evidence that either a wrist or an ankle disorder currently exists. See Snuffer v. Gober, 10 Vet. App. 400, 403-404 (1997). (Continued on the next page)   The threshold requirement for service connection for any disability is competent medical evidence of the existence of the claimed disability at some point during the pendency of the claim, including during a Veteran’s appeal. Brammer v. Derwinski, 3 Vet. App. 223 (1992). In light of the above, the Board finds that the Veteran did not have a diagnosed wrist or ankle disability at any time during the pendency of the appeal, and accordingly that service connection is not warranted for a left or a right wrist disorder, nor for a left or a right ankle disorder. While reasonable doubt will be resolved in favor of the Veteran, see Gilbert v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 49, 53 (1990), the Board finds that in this case the preponderance of the evidence weighs against the Veteran’s claim. See Alemany v. Brown, 9 Vet. App. 518, 519 (1996). Thomas H. O'Shay Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD Katz, David