Citation Nr: 18152554
Decision Date: 11/23/18	Archive Date: 11/23/18

DOCKET NO. 16-48 585
DATE:	November 23, 2018
REMANDED
Entitlement to service connection for residuals of injury to the left leg is remanded.
Entitlement to service connection for left leg scars, to include as secondary to residuals of injury to the left leg is remanded.
Entitlement to service connection for pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB) is remanded.
Entitlement to service connection for residual scars to the face and neck, to include as secondary to pseudofolliculitis barbae is remanded.
REASONS FOR REMAND
The Veteran served on active duty in the U.S. Navy from December 1981 to November 1983.  
These matters come to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from an June 2015 rating decision by the Regional Office (RO) of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). 
Service treatment records document treatment for PFB in August 1982.  In-service records reference an injury to the left leg with second degree burns in July 1983.  VA outpatient treatment records reflect diagnoses of and treatment for PFB with scarring, and hyperpigmentation of the left leg with neuropathic pain.  Examinations are necessary to secure nexus opinions.
The matters are REMANDED for the following action:
1. Schedule the Veteran for VA scars, skin disease, and peripheral nerves examinations; the claims file must be available to and reviewed by the examiners.  The examiner(s) must state whether current diagnoses of PFB or a left leg disability are warranted, or scars are present related to either.  For any currently identified disability, the examiner(s) must opine as to whether such are at least as likely as not related to military service, to include notations of PFB in service, or an incident of a fall and scrape of the left leg.
2. Thereafter, readjudicate the issues on appeal.  If the determinations remain unfavorable to the Veteran, he and his representative should be furnished a supplemental statement of the case.
 
WILLIAM H. DONNELLY
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	G. A. Ong, Associate Counsel