Secondary condition

A secondary condition is a disability that is caused by, or made worse by, a condition the VA has already service-connected. The rule sits at 38 CFR 3.310, which treats a disability proximately due to or the result of a service-connected disease or injury as service-connected itself. The already-connected condition supplies the link to service, so the secondary condition does not carry its own separate one.

What the medical record documents is the secondary condition itself: a current diagnosis, and how severe it is in functional terms the rating schedule can read. Whether the regulation's standard is met in a particular case is a claims question the VA decides on the evidence before it, argued by the veteran with their accredited representative or VSO.

The same regulation covers a second situation, where a service-connected condition aggravates a condition that is not service-connected. There the VA addresses the additional disability attributable to the aggravation rather than the whole of the nonservice-connected condition. Representation through a recognized VSO is free, and the severity half of the question stays where it always is, in what the record documents.