What happens if your vein collapses?

Answer 1

Collapsed veins may never recover. Much smaller veins are created by the body to circulate the blood, but they are not adequate for injections or IVs.

This is a typical scenario found with many prolonged IV drug abusers.

Answer 2

If all veins in the arms, hands, and feet have collapsed, a physician can do a "cut down" in which a vein is exposed by cutting through skin layers to get to the vein.