Body system: Musculoskeletal SystemRegulation: 38 CFR § 4.71a
This diagnostic code rates limited flexibility in your thigh muscle - specifically how much you can bend your thigh up toward your stomach (called hip flexion). The VA measures this limitation in degrees, with ratings from 10% to 40% depending on how restricted your movement is. A 40% rating means you can barely lift your thigh at all (only 10 degrees), while a 10% rating means you can lift it partway but not to a normal range (limited to 45 degrees instead of the typical 90+ degrees).
Rating levels
- 40% — You can only bend your thigh (flexion means bending a joint toward your body) up to 10 degrees at the hip joint. This is an extremely limited range of motion - a normal thigh can bend up to about 120 degrees, so this represents severe restriction where your leg remains almost completely straight when trying to bring your knee toward your chest.
- 30% — You can only bend your thigh forward at the hip joint up to 20 degrees. This is a severe limitation since a normal thigh should be able to flex (bend forward) to about 125 degrees, meaning you've lost most of your ability to lift your knee toward your chest or bend at the hip.
- 20% — You can only bend your thigh up toward your body to 30 degrees or less. This means when you try to lift your knee toward your chest while standing, or pull your knee toward your stomach while lying down, your thigh stops moving at about 30 degrees - which is much less than the normal range of about 125 degrees that most people can achieve.
- 10% — You can only bend your thigh forward at the hip joint up to 45 degrees. This means you have significant difficulty lifting your knee toward your chest - normal thigh flexion should reach about 120 degrees, so this represents a major limitation in your hip's range of motion that affects walking, climbing stairs, and getting in and out of cars.