## Facts

- A U.S. Army veteran sought VA service-connected compensation for bilateral hearing loss.
- The enlistment examination reflected no hearing loss; the separation examination showed some high-frequency loss.
- A post-service VA audiological examination reported hearing within normal limits except mild loss at 6,000 Hz in one ear.
- The regional office denied service connection; the Board of Veterans’ Appeals affirmed, finding the results did not meet the regulatory definition of a hearing-loss “disability” under 38 C.F.R. § 3.385.
- The Board decision issued more than 50 months after the most recent VA examination.
- The veteran argued the time gap required VA to provide a new “thorough and contemporaneous” examination under the duty to assist.
- The veteran submitted no evidence, and made no specific allegation, that his hearing had worsened after the VA examination.

## Issues

1. Whether VA’s duty to assist requires a new medical examination merely because substantial time elapsed between the last examination and the Board’s decision, absent evidence that the condition worsened or that the prior examination was inadequate.
2. Whether the Board erred in denying service connection by concluding the veteran’s audiometric results did not constitute a current hearing-loss disability under 38 C.F.R. § 3.385.

## Decision

- The court affirmed the Board’s denial of service connection for hearing loss.
- The court held VA has no freestanding obligation to obtain a new examination solely due to the passage of time.
- The court concluded a new examination is required only when evidence indicates worsening or the record otherwise fails to reflect the current severity of the condition.
- Because the veteran provided no evidence of worsening and did not show the prior audiology examination was inadequate, VA had no duty to obtain another examination before adjudication.
- The court accepted the Board’s application of 38 C.F.R. § 3.385 and upheld the finding that the veteran’s measured impairment did not meet the regulatory thresholds for a hearing-loss disability.

## Legal Principles

- VA’s duty to assist does not require a new medical examination solely because time has passed since the last examination.
- A new examination is warranted when the evidence indicates a material change in the disability, including competent lay statements of worsening, or when the existing record does not adequately show the disability’s current state.
- An otherwise adequate examination is not rendered inadequate by age alone.
- Service connection for hearing loss requires a current disability as defined by 38 C.F.R. § 3.385; minor or high-frequency loss that does not satisfy the regulation’s quantitative criteria does not qualify as a hearing-loss disability for compensation purposes.

## Conclusion

The court held that elapsed time, without evidence of worsening or inadequacy, does not trigger VA’s duty to provide an updated examination, and it affirmed denial of service connection where the veteran’s audiometric findings did not meet the regulatory definition of a hearing-loss disability.


Palczewski v. Nicholson, 21 Vet. App. 174 (2007)