VA Disability Rating for Paralysis of musculospiral nerve (DC 8514)

Rating levels

• 70% — This rating applies when your radial nerve is completely paralyzed, causing your hand to permanently drop down and your fingers and wrist to stay bent inward, with your thumb pulled across your palm toward your index finger. You cannot straighten your hand at the wrist, extend your fingers at the knuckles, extend your thumb, or move your wrist side to side, and your ability to turn your palm up, bend and straighten your elbow, and grip things is significantly weakened. Complete paralysis of your triceps muscle (the muscle that straightens your elbow) almost never happens with this type of nerve damage.
• 60% — Your hand is completely dropped and can't be lifted up at the wrist, your fingers and thumb are permanently bent inward and can't be straightened out, and your thumb is pulled across your palm. You cannot extend your hand upward, straighten your fingers at the knuckles (proximal phalanges), extend your thumb, or move your wrist from side to side, and your ability to rotate your hand palm-up (supination), bend and straighten your elbow, and grip things is significantly weakened because the muscles that normally help with these movements don't work together properly.
• 50% — The nerve damage is severe but not complete, meaning you have significant loss of function in your hand and wrist but some nerve activity remains. You would have major difficulty or inability to extend your wrist backward, straighten your fingers at the knuckles, or lift your thumb away from your palm, but you might still have some limited movement or sensation. This level typically involves substantial weakness that significantly interferes with using your hand for daily activities like gripping objects, typing, or lifting.
• 40% — The musculospiral nerve (also called the radial nerve) controls movement and feeling in your arm, wrist, and hand, particularly your ability to straighten your wrist and extend your fingers. At this level, the nerve damage is severe but not complete, meaning you have significant weakness and loss of function in your wrist and hand, but some nerve function still remains. You would have major difficulty straightening your wrist (called "wrist drop") and extending your fingers, along with numbness or reduced sensation in parts of your hand.
• 30% — The paralysis of your radial nerve (the nerve that controls movement in your arm, wrist, and fingers) is incomplete, meaning you still have some function but it's significantly limited. You would have moderate difficulty with movements like extending your wrist, straightening your fingers, or lifting your thumb, but you haven't completely lost all ability to perform these actions. Your grip strength and fine motor control would be noticeably impaired, affecting daily activities like writing, grasping objects, or using tools.
• 20% — You have moderate damage to your radial nerve (the nerve that controls muscles in your arm and hand) but it's not completely paralyzed. This typically means you have noticeable weakness in your wrist, difficulty straightening your fingers or thumb, and some loss of sensation, but you still have some muscle function and movement in the affected areas.
• 20% — You have minor damage to your radial nerve (the nerve that controls muscles in your arm and hand for extending your wrist and fingers). The nerve damage is incomplete, meaning it still works but not at full strength, causing mild weakness when you try to straighten your wrist or lift your hand up at the wrist. You may also experience some mild numbness or tingling on the back of your hand between your thumb and index finger.
• 20% — You have minor damage to your radial nerve (the nerve that controls muscles in your arm and hand for extending your wrist and fingers). The nerve damage is incomplete, meaning it still works but not at full strength, causing mild weakness when you try to straighten your wrist or lift your hand up at the wrist. You may also experience some mild numbness or tingling on the back of your hand between your thumb and index finger.