Home/Ankle — Limitation of Motion
Diagnostic Code 5271

Ankle — Limitation of Motion

Covers the Ankle Conditions DBQ. Unusually among joint claims, the rating criteria define “moderate” and “marked” in degrees — so a veteran can read their own completed exam and check the arithmetic.

Filing an ankle claim: the sequence How the filing sequence works for an ankle claim, and why both ankles get measured. Understanding your Ankle DBQ Why DC 5271 defines its own thresholds in degrees — and how to check your own exam against them.
Before your exam

Make sure you have the current form

VA revises Disability Benefits Questionnaires periodically, and an examiner who completes a superseded version can have the exam sent back. VA no longer prints form numbers on DBQs — it lists them by title — so the way to check is the small line in the bottom-right corner of every page.

The current Ankle DBQ, as of September 2026, reads Updated on: 2025-10-08 (v25_1) and runs 14 pages. If the copy your provider is using shows an older date, download a fresh one: VA's official copy.

Don't rely on a date cutoff alone — some DBQs are revised rarely and legitimately carry older dates. Compare against what VA publishes today rather than against a particular year. This questionnaire was formerly issued as VA Form 21-0960M-2; that number is no longer printed on the form, so don't be thrown if you can't find it.