Citation Nr: 18123775
Decision Date: 08/03/18	Archive Date: 08/02/18

DOCKET NO. 15-31 084
DATE:	August 3, 2018
REMANDED
Entitlement to an increased rating higher than 10 percent for lumbosacral spondylosis is remanded.
REASONS FOR REMAND
The Veteran served on active duty from June 1975 to August 2005.  This matter comes before the Board of Appeal on appeal from an August 2014 rating decision issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office.
After the Veteran’s October 2014 VA examination, the Veteran complained that after prolonged standing he lost sensation in his lower back and had pain ithe hip and legs. See August 2015 VA-Form 9 statement. As the evidence suggets a worsening in the lumbar spine disability since it was last evaluated, additional examination is warranted. The matter is REMANDED for the following action:
1. Ask the Veteran to complete a VA Form 21-4142 for any private treatment he has received for his lumbar spine disability. Make two requests for the authorized records from any identified physicians/ facilities, unless it is clear after the first request that a second request would be futile.
2.  Obtain the Veteran’s updated VA treatment records.
3. Schedule the Veteran for an examination of the current severity of his lumbosacral spondylosis.  The examiner must test the Veteran’s active motion, passive motion, and pain with weight-bearing and without weight-bearing.  The examiner must also attempt to elicit information regarding the severity, frequency, and duration of any flare-ups, and the degree of functional loss during flare-ups.  To the extent possible, the examiner should identify any symptoms and functional impairments due to the lumbosacral spondylosis alone and discuss the effect of the Veteran’s lumbosacral spondylosis on any occupational functioning and activities of daily living.  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).
 
DELYVONNE M. WHITEHEAD
Acting Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	Sarah B. Richmond