YOUR CONDITION, EXPLAINED
Femur, Impairment of VA disability rating & claim guide
The VA rates Femur, Impairment of under diagnostic code 5255, in 38 CFR § 4.71a (musculoskeletal system), and the schedule provides two evaluation levels for it: 80% and 60%.
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A CLEARER PATH FORWARD
Make sense of your next step.
01Understand the rating02Know what to gather03Plan your preparationTHE ESSENTIALS
How the VA rates Femur, Impairment of
A thigh bone that never healed back together (nonunion), or that healed into a false joint. If the femur healed but healed crooked (malunion), the schedule rates it under the knee or hip codes instead of here.
DC 5255's own evaluations cover nonunion only: 80 percent where a fracture of the shaft or anatomical neck has nonunion with loose motion, and 60 percent where nonunion is present without loose motion and weight bearing is preserved with the aid of a brace, or where a fracture of the surgical neck has produced a false joint. Malunion of the femur is no longer evaluated under this code at all — the schedule directs that it be evaluated under DC 5256, 5257, 5260 or 5261 for the knee, or DCs 5250 through 5254 for the hip, whichever results in the highest evaluation. So a healed-but-crooked femur is rated on what the knee or hip can actually do, not on this table.
- Diagnostic code
- 5255
- Rating schedule
- 38 CFR § 4.71a
- Schedule levels
- 80% and 60%
How does the VA choose a rating level?
Which level applies is set by the criteria the evidence meets, not by the diagnosis. Where there is a question as to which of two evaluations applies, 38 CFR § 4.7 assigns the higher one if the disability picture more nearly approximates the criteria required for that rating.
This code prints no 0% row. Under 38 CFR § 4.31, a 0% evaluation is assigned where the requirements for a compensable evaluation are not met.
EXPLORE THE PERCENTAGES
Femur, Impairment of VA rating criteria (DC 5255)
Choose a percentage to see what that level means. Open the full comparison to read all the criteria in one place.
These are published rating criteria. Selecting a level does not predict your VA decision.
BUILD YOUR EVIDENCE, ONE PIECE AT A TIME
Evidence for your Femur, Impairment of claim
A long list feels easier when you have a place to start. Use this checklist to see what you have and what still needs gathering.
Check off what you’ve gathered. Progress stays on this page until you leave or refresh.
THE EXAM FORM
Which DBQ is used for Femur, Impairment of?
VA's page says: “You can use these forms to submit medical evidence from your health care providers.”
Source: VA: Public Disability Benefits Questionnaires (DBQs), read September 18, 2026.
THE EVERYDAY PICTURE
What the Femur, Impairment of examination has to record
The criteria above are read off an examination, and three sections of Part 4 govern what that examination has to contain. None of them is a diagnostic code, so none of them appears in the 5255 table, and all three apply to it. 38 CFR § 4.40: “Weakness is as important as limitation of motion, and a part which becomes painful on use must be regarded as seriously disabled.”
38 CFR § 4.45 lists what an examination of a joint is directed to consider:
- Less movement than normal (due to ankylosis, limitation or blocking, adhesions, tendon-tie-up, contracted scars, etc.).
- More movement than normal (from flail joint, resections, nonunion of fracture, relaxation of ligaments, etc.).
- Weakened movement (due to muscle injury, disease or injury of peripheral nerves, divided or lengthened tendons, etc.).
- Excess fatigability.
- Incoordination, impaired ability to execute skilled movements smoothly.
- Pain on movement, swelling, deformity or atrophy of disuse.
38 CFR § 4.59: “It is the intention to recognize actually painful, unstable, or malaligned joints, due to healed injury, as entitled to at least the minimum compensable rating for the joint.” So a joint that is painful on use is not a finding of nothing, even where the measured motion is close to normal.
The same section says how the joint is to be tested: “The joints involved should be tested for pain on both active and passive motion, in weight-bearing and nonweight-bearing and, if possible, with the range of the opposite undamaged joint.” An examination that records one measurement, taken once, sitting down, has not done what the section asks, and that is worth reading the exam report for.
SMALL DETAILS. BETTER PREPARATION.
Preparing your Femur, Impairment of claim
Start with the practical tips, then explore the common oversights. You don’t need to work through everything at once.
Practical tips for your claim3 tips
- 01
Establish union or nonunion explicitly in the imaging report, because this code pays only for nonunion (or a false joint at the surgical neck) and everything else it once covered has been moved elsewhere.
- 02
If the femur healed in malunion, get full goniometric measurements of both the knee and the hip — the schedule rates it under whichever of those codes yields the highest evaluation, so leaving one joint unmeasured can cost the higher rating.
- 03
Document brace-assisted weight bearing where nonunion is stable, since that is the specific finding separating the 60 percent evaluation from the 80 percent one.
C&P exam pitfalls to keep in mind1 tips
- 01
Failing to document instability or loose motion at the fracture site, which is specifically what separates the higher rating tiers from the lower ones.
Common filing mistakes2 tips
- 01
Claiming a malunion under this code and expecting a percentage from it — since 2021 the schedule routes malunion of the femur to the knee codes (5256, 5257, 5260, 5261) or the hip codes (5250-5254), whichever pays more.
- 02
Missing records of the original fracture, which are needed to establish both the injury and how it healed.
When symptoms may first appear1 tips
- 01
Femur impairment most often results from combat injuries, falls, or other significant trauma during service that caused the original fracture.
THE BROADER PICTURE
Femur, Impairment of by the numbers
- Approval outlook
- Moderate
- Veterans service-connected
- ~16,000 veterans
Vetrify editorial estimates informed by VA published claims data (VBA Annual Benefits Report) and the VA rating schedule, not official VA statistics.
LET’S CLEAR A FEW THINGS UP
Common questions about Femur, Impairment of
Is Femur, Impairment of a VA-rated disability?
Yes. The VA rates Femur, Impairment of under VASRD diagnostic code 5255 (Musculoskeletal System). A thigh bone that never healed back together (nonunion), or that healed into a false joint. If the femur healed but healed crooked (malunion), the schedule rates it under the knee or hip codes instead of here.
What VA disability rating can I get for Femur, Impairment of?
Possible VA ratings for Femur, Impairment of are 80%, 60%, 0%. The 0% level comes from 38 CFR 4.31, which assigns it wherever no compensable level is met. Examples: 80%: Fracture of the shaft or anatomical neck of the femur with nonunion, with loose motion (spiral or oblique fracture); 60%: Fracture of the shaft or anatomical neck of the femur with nonunion, without loose motion, weight bearing preserved with aid of brace; or fracture of the surgical neck of the femur with false joint.
What evidence helps prove Femur, Impairment of for VA disability?
Strong evidence for a Femur, Impairment of claim includes: X-rays or CT showing whether the fracture united, and whether there is motion at the fracture site — union versus nonunion is the dividing line this code is built on; Orthopedic notes describing the fracture site as stable or loose, and whether weight bearing is possible with a brace; Where the femur healed in malunion, goniometric range-of-motion measurements of the knee and hip, because that is where the schedule sends malunion to be rated.
Which DBQ is used for Femur, Impairment of?
VA's Hip and Thigh Disability Benefits Questionnaire (DBQ) is on its public list of DBQs. VA's page says: "You can use these forms to submit medical evidence from your health care providers."
What mistakes should veterans avoid when claiming Femur, Impairment of?
Common pitfalls when filing for Femur, Impairment of: Claiming a malunion under this code and expecting a percentage from it — since 2021 the schedule routes malunion of the femur to the knee codes (5256, 5257, 5260, 5261) or the hip codes (5250-5254), whichever pays more; Missing records of the original fracture, which are needed to establish both the injury and how it healed.
What conditions can be secondary to Femur, Impairment of?
Conditions that can be service-connected as secondary to Femur, Impairment of, when a medical opinion links them, include: Knee arthritis; Hip bursitis. A secondary condition gets its own rating, which VA combines with the veteran's other ratings under 38 CFR 4.25.
Official sources
- 38 CFR § 4.71a, Schedule of ratings, musculoskeletal system (Diagnostic Code 5255)
- 38 CFR § 4.7, higher of two evaluations
- 38 CFR § 4.31, zero percent evaluations
- 38 CFR § 4.40, functional loss
- 38 CFR § 4.45, the joints
- 38 CFR § 4.59, painful motion
Criteria in quotation marks are the regulation’s own words; everything else on this page is Vetrify’s summary of it. The eCFR text is authoritative. See how Vetrify derives its numbers.
How these figures are checked: our methodology and the open dataset.
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