Reference: 38 CFR 4.71a
What documentation clarifies the criteria
Primary sources:38 CFR 4.71a spine criteria and range-of-motion notesOfficial VA Back (Thoracolumbar Spine) DBQ
Evidence
Shows measured motion, repeated-use findings, flare-up context, guarding, spasm, gait, contour, ankylosis, neurologic findings, and other examination details in one structured record.
A DBQ is useful structured evidence, but RatingScope does not decide what evidence VA must accept.
May document degree measurements, tenderness, spasm, guarding, gait, spinal contour, diagnosis, treatment, and neurologic observations.
A diagnosis or treatment history alone does not identify a percentage pathway.
May clarify whether pain, weakness, fatigability, or repeated movement adds documented functional loss or a different degree value.
RatingScope does not convert a symptom description into an unrecorded range-of-motion value.
May clarify diagnosis, anatomy, fracture, degeneration, stenosis, or surgical changes.
MRI or X-ray severity does not by itself determine the General Rating Formula percentage.
May clarify radiating pain, numbness, weakness, reflex changes, or nerve involvement that should be understood separately from the back motion pathway.
A related neurologic finding is not automatically service connected or separately evaluated.
Can explain how bending, standing, walking, sitting, lifting, repeated use, or flare-ups affect daily activities.
Personal descriptions add context but do not replace clinical measurements required by a measurement-based criterion.
Take the public DBQ to your private physician or review it prior to your C&P examination.
What would you like to do next?
Test your symptoms and evidence against published 38 CFR criteria.
Track this condition and calculate your whole-person combined rating.
See how multiple disability ratings combine under 38 CFR §4.25.
Keep going
Compare a percentage level and combined-rating math, or review evidence context.
Understand the whole-person method, final rounding, and bilateral limits, then calculate how percentages combine.
Open VA Math guideUnderstand common evidence categories and what they can clarify without treating them as a checklist.
Open Evidence Center