A shift of the wall between the nasal passages that may obstruct airflow.
Because the only available rating requires a traumatic cause, evidence that your deviated septum resulted from an injury — such as service treatment records documenting a blow to the nose, a fracture, or another facial trauma — is directly relevant to whether this code can apply to you at all.
To support the 10% rating level, medical evidence should document the degree of nasal passage obstruction. This typically comes from a physician's or specialist's examination findings that measure or describe the amount of blockage in each nostril. A finding of at least 50% obstruction on both sides, or complete obstruction on one side, matches the rating criteria. Imaging such as a CT scan or X-ray that shows the extent of the septal deviation may also help establish how much the passages are blocked. Statements from you or others about breathing difficulty can add context, but clinical measurements of obstruction are what the criteria directly call for.
Conditions that are often caused or made worse by this one. If you have any of these, they may be claimable as secondary service connection.
