Radiculopathy C&P Exam

Find the rules for your diagnosis

Use the name in your medical records. Choose a topic to make a guide with the matching rating rules. If you are unsure, the preparation checklist will help you ask the examiner what is being checked.

I am unsure or my diagnosis is not listed

Inside the exam room

1. You will be asked where pain, numbness, or tingling travels in each leg. Point out the path, which side it affects, how often it happens, and what brings it on.

2. The examiner will check relevant leg strength, reflexes, feeling, muscle changes, and walking. Explain weakness separately from numbness.

3. You will be asked how the leg problem affects daily activity. Explain trouble walking, climbing stairs, standing, or sitting, including falls and support you need.

How VA rates radiculopathy

Start with the diagnosis in your records. If you are unsure, ask which condition, joint, or nerve the examiner is checking. Keep notes on your symptoms and daily limits; a symptom alone does not identify the right rating table.

Which exam or test results are needed?

Use the diagnosis and findings in your records. These choices show the relevant rules; they do not calculate or decide your rating.

What may happen in the exam room

A qualified health care professional checks strength, feeling, reflexes, and changes in skin or tissue.
The examiner checks which nerve is affected, on which side, and what the tests show.

What the measurements tell you

Strength, reflexes, changes in feeling, shrinking muscles (atrophy), and what becomes harder to do.
Whether the problem affects feeling alone or also causes weakness or other changes. Different rules may apply.

Questions the examiner may cover

Where do symptoms travel, and on which side?
What weakness, numbness, or change in what you can do have you noticed?
Which nerve or diagnosis is identified in your medical records?

Questions to expect

Where do symptoms travel, and on which side?

Explain: Describe pain, tingling, numbness and triggers separately for each leg. Identify the nerve named in your records, if known.

Rating connection: The clinician identifies the affected nerve. Sciatic, femoral and other nerves have different percentage tables; the symptom path alone is not a diagnosis.

Is there weakness or loss of function beyond altered feeling?

Explain: Describe foot dragging, falls, stairs, walking distance and support used. Point to strength, reflex, sensation and muscle-wasting findings in your records.

Rating connection: VA considers motor, reflex and sensory findings when evaluating nerve severity. Wholly sensory involvement is rated mild, or at most moderate; weakness does not by itself prove complete paralysis.

Your answer outline

I feel [actual sensation] in [location and side]. It travels [path, if any] during [activity or circumstances]. This happens [frequency] and lasts [duration]. It changes [task] by [specific effect]. My records identify [diagnosis or nerve, only if it is in your medical records].

Mark approximate dates and counts as estimates.

My notes: ________________________

Service connection records

1. How is this connected to your service?

For a direct claim, identify your current disability, what happened in service, and evidence linking them. Being on active duty or orders alone does not prove that link.

Write the 5 Ws and how: who was there; what happened; when; where; why you were there; how the problem began. Add duty status, treatment, witnesses, and records. Mark uncertain dates as estimates.
Guard or Reserve: find your orders, dates, duty type, and any line-of-duty records. Active duty, training, and drills have different rules.
Secondary condition: it may start after service. Identify the service-connected condition and evidence that it caused or worsened this problem. A medical opinion may help explain the link.
Started before service? Record what changed during service. Presumptive condition? Check the required diagnosis and service history; qualifying claims do not require separate proof of a link.
Already service connected and seeking an increase? Focus on what has worsened and the records showing it.

If you do not know the cause, say so. Do not guess a medical connection.

Explain what changes in daily life

Describe both what you can do and what becomes difficult. Include how often it happens and how long it lasts.

Describe the actual distribution and effect on tasks or walking.
Report symptoms on each side separately without assuming all symptoms share one cause.

Common mistakes to avoid

Treating every nerve as the sciatic nerve.
Equating a pain score or foot drop alone with a complete-paralysis percentage.
Adding percentages for overlapping nerve manifestations without review.

Records to get ready before the exam

Neurological examination and treatment records.
Relevant imaging or electrodiagnostic reports when available.
Exam and test results identifying the nerve, side, and impairment.

Preparation notes

If nerve symptoms only affect feeling, such as numbness or tingling, VA generally uses mild, or at most moderate, under its nerve rules. The affected nerve and medical records still matter.
A nerve diagnosis and any proposed relationship to a spine condition need medical evidence.

Important context

Diagnosis not selected. Your copy includes preparation steps, without guessing a percentage. Return here when you have the diagnosis to include its rating rules.

Official rating rule and code numbers

Use this source to check the full rule and its medical terms: 38 CFR 4.120, 4.123, 4.124 and 4.124a. Source review recorded 2026-09-04.

Could one health problem have caused another?

A condition VA has already linked to your service may cause another health problem or make it worse. VA calls this secondary service connection. Having both conditions does not prove the link. Your records need to show a current diagnosis and explain how the first condition or its treatment affected the second.

Start with your records. Find the current diagnosis, the condition VA already linked to service, and evidence from someone qualified to explain the connection.
Ask about cause and worsening. Did the first condition or its treatment cause the new disability, or make an existing disability worse? These are different questions. The rules call them causation under 38 CFR § 3.310(a) and aggravation under § 3.310(b). If both are raised by your records, the medical opinion should address both; answering only the cause question may not be enough (El-Amin).
If treatment may be involved, collect the dates. List the medicine or surgery prescribed for the condition VA linked to service, the side effect, and the new diagnosis. Bring pharmacy records and dates when treatment started or stopped. A provider must explain the connection in your case; taking a medicine alone does not prove it.
If weight gain may be involved, ask how it fits. Weight gain or obesity can be a step between the first condition and another diagnosed disability under VAOPGCPREC 1-2017. Obesity itself does not receive a VA disability rating.
You do not need absolute certainty. VA uses the “at least as likely as not” standard and the reasonable-doubt rule under 38 CFR § 3.102. Ask a VA-accredited representative how the evidence applies to your claim.
The same symptom cannot be counted twice. This is the rule against pyramiding in 38 CFR § 4.14. Mental-health diagnoses generally share one § 4.130 rating when they affect the same work and social abilities. Trouble sleeping may be a symptom rather than a separate disability.
Check whether VA already assumes a link to service. Some conditions qualify based on where or when you served. These are called presumptive conditions. Examples can include chronic rhinitis, chronic sinusitis, hypertension after qualifying herbicide exposure, and type 2 diabetes. Sleep apnea (OSA) is not a PACT Act presumptive. Check eligibility before seeking a medical opinion about the link.
An exam form and a medical opinion do different jobs. A Disability Benefits Questionnaire (DBQ) records the diagnosis and how severe it is. It may not explain why it is linked to service, often called a nexus. A VA-accredited veterans service organization (VSO) can help you file at no charge.

If another prescribed treatment may have caused a problem, ask your health care provider to record what happened and explain the connection in your case.

Sources: 38 CFR § 3.310 · 38 CFR § 4.14 · VA-accredited representatives

C&P exam for radiculopathy: what to expect and how VA rates it.