Find the code, then read what it actually requires

Each guide separates three things that get run together: the medical condition, why it might be connected to service, and how severity is evaluated once it is. A diagnosis does not imply a percentage, and a percentage says nothing about service connection.

Every criterion quoted here was read against the current eCFR text on the review date. Where a schedule changed recently, the guide says so — because a summary written against the old version reads exactly as confidently as one written against the new.

Respiratory and ENT

• Asthma — DC 6602
• Sleep apnea — DC 6847
• Chronic sinusitis — DCs 6510–6514
• Allergic and vasomotor rhinitis — DC 6522
• Deviated septum — DC 6502

Digestive

The digestive schedule was revised effective 19 May 2024, and several codes now point at the stricture criteria rather than carrying their own. Older summaries describing heartburn frequency are describing a schedule that no longer applies.

• GERD — DC 7206
• Eosinophilic esophagitis
• Schatzki ring — DC 7204
• Hiatal hernia — DC 7346

Neurological and mental health

• Migraine — DC 8100
• PTSD and other mental disorders — DC 9411

Ear

• Recurrent tinnitus — DC 6260
• Peripheral vestibular disorders — DC 6204

Still being checked, code by code: plantar fasciitis (5269), median nerve and carpal tunnel (8515), and hearing impairment (6100). They will appear when their criteria have been read against the current text, not before.

Reviewed October 6, 2026