Citation Nr: 21013723 Decision Date: 03/10/21 Archive Date: 03/10/21 DOCKET NO. 15-10 397A DATE: March 10, 2021 ORDER Entitlement to service connection for lumbosacral degenerative disc disease with right lower leg recurrent sciatica is granted. FINDING OF FACT The evidence is in equipoise as to whether the Veteran’s lumbosacral degenerative disc disease with right lower leg recurrent sciatica is related to an in-service injury. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for establishing entitlement to service connection for lumbosacral degenerative disc disease with right lower leg recurrent sciatica have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1131, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303. 3.307, 3.309. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty in the United States Navy from April 1981 to April 1985. This matter was previously before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) in November 2018 directing the Regional Office (RO) to obtain all VA treatment records and an addendum opinion based on the entire file. The RO continued to deny the claim in a June 2020 supplemental statement of the case. The matter returns to the Board for adjudication. The Board has considered the Veteran’s claims and decided entitlement based on the evidence of record. The Veteran has not raised any other issues, nor have any other issues been reasonably raised by the record, with respect to her claims. See Doucette v. Shulkin, 28 Vet. App. 366, 369-70 (2017) (confirming that the Board is not required to address issues unless they are specifically raised by the claimant or reasonably raised by the evidence of record). Service connection may be established for a disability resulting from disease or injury which was clearly present in service or for a disease diagnosed after discharge from service, when all the evidence, including that pertinent to service, establishes that the disease was incurred in service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303. Establishing service connection generally requires medical or, in certain circumstances, lay evidence of (1) a current disability; (2) an in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a nexus between the claimed in-service disease or injury and the present disability. Davidson v. Shinseki, 581 F.3d 1313 (Fed. Cir. 2009). In addition, certain chronic diseases, such as degenerative arthritis, may be presumed to have been incurred in, or aggravated by, service if the disease becomes manifest to a compensable degree within one year of separation from qualifying military service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1101, 1112, 1113; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307, 3.309. Additionally, service connection on the basis of continuity of symptomatology can be established for the chronic diseases specified at 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(a), including arthritis. Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331 (Fed. Cir. 2013). After thorough consideration of the evidence of record, the Board concludes that service connection is warranted for the Veteran’s lumbosacral arthritis, as arthritis is a chronic disease subject to presumptive service connection under 38 C.F.R. § 3.309(a) based upon a showing of continuity of symptomatology. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(b); see Walker, 708 F.3d at 1331. The current medical evidence of record documents a current diagnosis of lumbosacral degenerative disc disease with right lower leg recurrent sciatica. See December 2019 VA examination. Additionally, the Veteran’s service treatment records document that she was treated for low back pain radiating up the lower back and down the legs in January 1983. The Veteran submitted a lengthy statement regarding the incident in which she was assisting a patient into bed, causing a sharp pain in her low back and down her right leg. See November 2017 Correspondence. Thus, there is evidence of an in-service injury or event. VA treatment records dating from 2013 through 2020 note thoracic and lumbar region pain and spasms that come and go. A March 2013 x-ray documents findings of minimal degenerative disc disease in the thoracic and lumbar spine. The record also contains lay reports of ongoing chronic low back pain since discharge from service. Finally, the Veteran stated the in-service physician told her she injured her low back affecting her sciatic nerve that had been pinched and inflamed and would likely have the low back pain forever. See November 2017 Correspondence. The Board acknowledges the December 2019 VA opinion which concluded that the Veteran’s low back disability was less likely than not caused by or incurred during her active duty service. The only rationale provided by the examiner was that, although it is possible that it occurred in service, there was no in-service documentation of back pain at separation to establish a connection to a service injury. However, because the examiner did not consider the Veteran’s lay statements of chronic low back pain since active duty service and focuses solely on the lack of documentation, the Board does not afford the December 2019 VA opinion significant probative value. In determining whether service connection is warranted for disease or disability, VA must determine whether the evidence supports the claim or is in relative equipoise, with the Veteran prevailing in either event, or whether a preponderance of the evidence is against the claim, in which case the claim is denied. Gilbert v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 49 (1990). In this case, considering the evidence of record and affording the Veteran the benefit of the doubt, the Board finds the medical evidence and the Veteran’s statements concerning the onset of back pain symptoms during service, which are corroborated by service treatment records, and her lay statements of continuous symptoms since service, support a finding that it is at least as likely as not that the Veteran’s lumbosacral degenerative disc disease with right lower leg recurrent sciatica had its onset in service and has continued to the present. Consequently, the Board finds that entitlement to service connection for lumbosacral degenerative disc disease with right lower leg recurrent sciatica is warranted. B. G. LeMoine Acting Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board C. Townsend, Associate Counsel The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.