What is the VA rating for Back (Thoracolumbar Spine)?

For the motion pathway, the published boundary is forward flexion. Greater than 30 degrees through 60 degrees is listed at 20%; 30 degrees or less is listed at 40%. Favorable ankylosis of the entire thoracolumbar spine is another 40% path. The actual documented finding matters.

Pain and functional loss matter, but the General Rating Formula still uses documented motion, ankylosis, gait, contour, tenderness, spasm, guarding, or fracture findings. RatingScope does not turn pain intensity into an unrecorded measurement.

No. Imaging can clarify diagnosis and anatomy, but the General Rating Formula percentage is usually distinguished by the listed examination findings. A severe-sounding MRI does not replace range-of-motion or ankylosis findings.

No. Surgery may explain treatment history, anatomy, or functional context, but surgery alone does not set a percentage. The post-surgical findings must still be compared with the applicable published criteria.

The General Rating Formula contains direct forward-flexion and combined-motion thresholds. That makes degree measurements a clear way to distinguish several adjacent pathways while preserving the other listed routes.

RatingScope should identify the missing detail rather than guess. Examination findings about ankylosis, spasm, guarding, gait, contour, tenderness, or fracture may still matter, but an undocumented measurement cannot be invented.

The spine formula directs attention to associated objective neurologic abnormalities, but a separate evaluation or service-connection conclusion is not automatic. Radiculopathy uses its own neurologic findings and criteria pathway.

IVDS (DC 5243) is evaluated under whichever formula produces the higher evaluation: the General Rating Formula for Diseases and Injuries of the Spine, or the separate Formula for Rating IVDS Based on Incapacitating Episodes. Use the comparison tool on this page to see both results from the same documented findings.

DC 5242 (degenerative arthritis, degenerative disc disease other than IVDS) also cross-references DC 5003 or DC 5010, the general degenerative-arthritis diagnostic codes -- now covered directly on this site's Arthritis hub, including DC 5003's own Note (1), which states its X-ray-based ratings will not be combined with ratings based on limitation of motion. RatingScope's Back guide covers the spine-specific General Rating Formula only; it discloses this cross-reference rather than computing a combined result across the two hubs.

DC 5244 (traumatic paralysis, complete) is not rated using the General Rating Formula's percentage table above. Paraplegia is rated under DC 5110; quadriplegia is rated separately under DC 5109 and DC 5110 and combined. Incomplete traumatic paralysis is evaluated under the appropriate peripheral-nerve diagnostic code instead.

No categorical medication rule appears in current 38 CFR 4.10. VA rescinded the February 17, 2026 interim final rule on February 27, 2026 and restored the prior functional-impairment text. Because the current primary authority reviewed here does not provide a universal yes-or-no answer about medication effects, this guide does not claim that medication can or cannot change every evaluation; review the condition-specific criteria and the documented examination findings.

Possibly, through TDIU (Total Disability rating based on Individual Unemployability, 38 CFR 4.16) -- a separate pathway to 100 percent compensation based on unemployability, from this and/or other service-connected disabilities combined, independent of whether the schedular rating itself reaches 100 percent. This hub computes only the schedular percentage and does not determine TDIU eligibility.

The 10% pathway begins when a listed motion, tenderness, spasm, guarding, or vertebral-fracture criterion is documented.

The 20% pathways use greater motion limitation, combined motion of 120 degrees or less, or spasm or guarding severe enough to produce abnormal gait or spinal contour.

The clearest motion distinction from 40% is forward flexion: greater than 30 through 60 degrees at 20%, compared with 30 degrees or less at 40%. Favorable ankylosis of the entire thoracolumbar spine is also a 40% pathway.

The flexion boundary between 20% and 40% is 30 degrees. The 50% level requires unfavorable, rather than favorable, ankylosis of the entire thoracolumbar spine.

Favorable thoracolumbar ankylosis is a 40% pathway. The 100% level requires unfavorable ankylosis of the entire spine, not only the thoracolumbar region.

The 50% pathway is limited to unfavorable ankylosis of the entire thoracolumbar spine. The 100% pathway extends the finding to the entire spine.