Guide series
Knee Pain and VA Disability: Complete Guide Series
Plain-English guides to knee VA disability claims: service connection, ratings under 38 CFR 4.71a, painful motion and loss of function, instability, and secondary claims.
Overview
Start here: knee & musculoskeletal basics.
Knee conditions are among the most frequently claimed disabilities in the VA system, and they raise several separate questions: whether years of ruck marching, jumping, and load-bearing can be connected to a knee that now gives way, how range of motion, painful motion, and instability are measured, and how a knee damaged by an altered gait is handled.
The guides below work through each question using the VA's own regulations. Start with the overview, then read the guide that matches your situation.
Knee Pain and VA Disability: How Service Connection Works
How VA service connection works for knee conditions: the three elements, in-service exposure, direct and secondary theories, and how range of motion and instability are rated.
Read the main guideIn this series
Go deeper on your situation.
9 min readKnee VA Ratings: Range of Motion, Painful Motion, and Ankylosis
How the VA rates knee conditions under 38 CFR 4.71a: limited flexion, limited extension, instability, ankylosis, painful motion, and knee replacement ratings.
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9 min readPainful Motion and Loss of Function in Knee Ratings
How 38 CFR 4.40, 4.45, 4.55, and 4.59 use functional loss - flare-ups, repeated use, and guarding - to set knee ratings, and what the examiner must document.
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8 min readKnee Instability and Giving Way: How Diagnostic Code 5257 Is Rated
How recurrent subluxation and lateral instability of the knee are rated at 10, 20, or 30 percent under Diagnostic Code 5257, and how giving-way episodes are documented.
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8 min readKnee Conditions Secondary to Back, Hip, and Gait Problems
How a service-connected back, hip, or ankle condition can support secondary service connection for a knee disability under 38 CFR 3.310, and what the opinion must establish.
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8 min readOsteoarthritis and VA Knee Ratings: Degenerative Joint Disease
How osteoarthritis and degenerative joint disease of the knee are service connected and rated: Diagnostic Code 5003, the one-year presumption, post-traumatic arthritis, and knee replacement ratings.
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8 min readThe Knee C&P Exam: What Gets Measured and How to Prepare
What happens at a VA knee compensation and pension exam: the goniometer measurements, instability testing, the three range-of-motion readings, and how to describe your knee accurately.
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8 min readMedical Evidence for Knee Claims: What Wins and What Is Missing
The records that decide VA knee claims: service treatment records and profiles, the first year after separation, lay statements, imaging limits, and what a nexus opinion must address.
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