Musculoskeletal system
VA rating for limitation of flexion of the knee, diagnostic code 5260
Limitation of flexion of the knee is diagnostic code 5260, rated at 0, 10, 20 or 30 percent. Each criterion is a single measurement in degrees and nothing else. A knee that bends only to 60 degrees meets a criterion, and the evaluation the schedule assigns to it is zero percent.
Published 2026-08-21. Last updated 2026-08-24. Written and reviewed under Veteran Health Network's institutional review process.
What each level requires
limitation of flexion of the knee is rated under diagnostic code 5260, which the schedule calls "Leg, limitation of flexion of", at 38 CFR 4.71a.
30 percent requires
In plain English
The knee bends no further than 15 degrees.
As written in 38 CFR 4.71a
Flexion limited to 15°
20 percent requires
In plain English
The knee bends no further than 30 degrees.
As written in 38 CFR 4.71a
Flexion limited to 30°
10 percent requires
In plain English
The knee bends no further than 45 degrees.
As written in 38 CFR 4.71a
Flexion limited to 45°
0 percent requires
In plain English
The knee bends no further than 60 degrees. A normal knee bends to about 140 degrees, so this criterion describes a real loss of motion that the schedule still rates at zero percent.
As written in 38 CFR 4.71a
Flexion limited to 60°
Regulation text reproduced from 38 CFR 4.71a, read on 2026-08-21. Read the section at the eCFR. Part 4 is amended on a rolling schedule, so the date above is the date this text was checked and not the date it was written.
A pure measurement scale, including at the bottom
Derived from the regulation
The four criteria are as short as anything in Part 4: "Flexion limited to 15°" at 30 percent, "Flexion limited to 30°" at 20, "Flexion limited to 45°" at 10 and "Flexion limited to 60°" at 0.
There is no clause about pain, no clause about instability and no clause about treatment. The code measures one thing.
The zero percent criterion is the one worth pausing on. Flexion limited to 60 degrees is a substantial restriction against a knee that normally bends to about 140, and the schedule prints it as a noncompensable evaluation. That is not an oversight; a zero percent entry is how the schedule records a recognized disability that its own table does not pay.
Sections 4.40, 4.45 and 4.59 in the same part deal with functional loss, painful motion and the joints generally, and they sit outside this code rather than inside it.
Why one knee can carry more than one code
Derived from the regulation
Flexion is 5260 and extension is 5261. They are separate codes with separate criteria, and a knee can be limited in both directions.
Instability is a third code again, 5257, which was rewritten in 2021 around prescribed braces and assistive devices rather than around the words slight, moderate and severe it used before.
Whether more than one of them can be assigned at once is governed by 38 CFR 4.14, which bars rating the same disability under different diagnoses. Separate limitation of flexion and of extension are different measurements; the same restriction described twice is not.
What the amendment record shows for this code
Derived from the regulation
The knee motion codes have an unusual amendment record, and the absence in it is as informative as the entries.
Appendix A to Part 4 lists no amendment for 5260. That silence is the record rather than a gap in it: the table exists to log changes, and there have been none to this code on its own. Nothing here is recent.
The Federal Register line beneath 4.71a is the section's, which is why it runs long where the Appendix A row is empty: 29 FR 6718, May 22, 1964, as amended at 34 FR 5062, Mar. 11, 1969; 40 FR 42536, Sept. 15, 1975; 41 FR 11294, Mar. 18, 1976; 43 FR 45350, Oct. 2, 1978; 51 FR 6411, Feb. 24, 1986; 61 FR 20439, May 7, 1996; 67 FR 48785, July 26, 2002; 67 FR 54349, Aug. 22, 2002; 68 FR 51456, Aug. 27, 2003; 69 FR 32450, June 10, 2004; 80 FR 42041, July 16, 2015; 85 FR 76460, Nov. 30, 2020, 85 FR 85523, Dec. 29, 2020, 86 FR 8142, Feb. 4, 2021. Read 2026-08-21.
See every level beside the regulation it comes from
The rating threshold cheatsheet shows all of the levels for limitation of flexion of the knee in one view, plain English on the left and the regulation itself on the right, in a layout built to print.
It is free and it never says which level anyone meets. It describes what each one requires and leaves the reading to the person whose record it is.
Sources
- 38 CFR 4.71a, Schedule of ratings, musculoskeletal system (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations)
- 38 CFR 4.59, Painful motion (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations)
- 38 CFR 4.14, Avoidance of pyramiding (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations)
- Appendix A to Part 4, Table of Amendments and Effective Dates Since 1946 (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations)
Accuracy owner Brayden Marley. Part 4 is amended on a rolling schedule, so the retrieval date above is what this page is accurate as of.