Ulyana Hurayevska - Olenchenko, MD
Some surgical expertise is built in the operating theatre. Some is built in congresses and fellowships. And some is built in a country at war, treating injuries that most European surgeons will never encounter in an entire career.
Ulyana Hurayevska-Olenchenko, MD brings all three to the Lidsummit. As Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Regional Ophthalmic Trauma Centre of Saint Panteleimon Hospital in Lviv, Ukraine, she has spent over twenty years treating ocular trauma, burns, and their long-term consequences — and since 2022, she has been at the front line of reconstructing periorbital injuries caused by war.
Twenty Years at Ukraine's Regional Ophthalmic Trauma Centre
Dr. Hurayevska-Olenchenko earned her MD in General Medicine from Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University in 2004, followed by an internship in ophthalmology at the Eye Trauma Department of Lviv Emergency Clinical Hospital.
Since February 2006 — now more than two decades — she has practised at the Regional Ophthalmic Trauma Centre, Saint Panteleimon Hospital, part of the First Lviv Territorial Medical Union. Since 2017 she has held the position of Consultant Ophthalmologist with the Highest Qualification Category, the most senior clinical grade in the Ukrainian medical system.
Her clinical expertise spans the full range of the ophthalmic trauma and oculoplastic spectrum:
Comprehensive management of ocular trauma, burns, and their long-term consequences
Reconstructive periocular and oculoplastic surgery
Surgical treatment of eyelid and periocular tumours
Management of anophthalmic patients and ocular prosthetic rehabilitation
Cosmetic periocular plastic surgery and blepharoplasty
Lacrimal drainage system disorders, cataract surgery, and glaucoma management
““When you reconstruct an eyelid after a blast injury, you are not just closing a defect. You are giving someone back the ability to protect their eye, to close it at night, to be looked at without people looking away. That is what this work means.””
A Deliberate Path into Oculoplastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Dr. Hurayevska-Olenchenko's oculoplastic expertise has been built through a sustained programme of international training that spans more than a decade and half of Europe:
2015 — Fellowship in Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery in Ophthalmology, Odesa, Ukraine
2015 — Clinical Observership, Department of Ophthalmology and Ophthalmic Oncology, University Hospital Kraków, Poland
2016 — Advanced Training in Plastic Surgery of the Face, Kyiv
2024 — Clinical Fellowship in Oculoplastic Surgery, Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Germany
More recently, she has focused on advanced periorbital techniques through ASOEP masterclasses on ptosis surgical approaches (Kyiv, 2025) and advanced blepharoplasty (Zhytomyr, 2025), alongside masterclasses in comprehensive facial rejuvenation with canthopexy and midface lift.
Reconstructing War: Humanitarian Missions and Combat-Related Injury
This is where Dr. Hurayevska-Olenchenko's profile becomes genuinely unique among European oculoplastic surgeons.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion, she has been a repeated participant in the Face to Face humanitarian missions — programmes in which American facial plastic surgeons travel to Ukraine to provide reconstructive treatment for wounded service members at the Western Regional Military Hospital in Lviv.
She is also a participant and organiser of the Ukrainian–Israeli Mission for the surgical treatment of war-related periorbital injuries at the Ophthalmology Department of Saint Panteleimon Hospital. Two further missions are already scheduled: a Face to Face mission in Lviv (30 March – 4 April 2026) and a Ukrainian–Israeli Partnership Mission for periorbital trauma and ocular prosthetic rehabilitation in Haifa, Israel (5–17 July 2026).
In 2024 she completed a masterclass in Microsurgical Reconstruction of Combat-Related Defects — training that speaks directly to the reality of her daily practice.
The medical literature confirms what she encounters clinically: ocular and periorbital injuries account for a disproportionately high share of modern combat casualties, and their reconstruction demands the simultaneous restoration of protection, mobility, and appearance under conditions where tissue is scarce and damage is extensive.
Why the Lid Summit Needs This Perspective
Most eyelid surgery training deals with elective, planned, controlled scenarios: involutional ptosis, dermatochalasis, ectropion, tumour excision with clean margins. That training is essential — and it is exactly what the Lid Summit delivers at its hands-on stations.
But surgeons who have worked in trauma reconstruction bring something that elective practice cannot teach: an understanding of tissue behaviour under extreme conditions, of reconstruction when the usual donor sites are unavailable, of prioritising function when perfection is not on the table. That knowledge sharpens every surgeon's judgement, whether or not they ever face a blast injury.
Dr. Hurayevska-Olenchenko also brings the perspective of the anophthalmic patient — an area of oculoplastic care that receives comparatively little attention in training programmes, but which is central to the long-term rehabilitation of severe periorbital trauma.
Conclusion
Ulyana Hurayevska-Olenchenko, MD represents ophthalmology at its most consequential: two decades of trauma expertise, a deliberately built oculoplastic skillset trained across Ukraine, Poland, and Germany, and a body of humanitarian surgical work carried out under the hardest conditions imaginable.
For Lid Summit participants, her contribution is a reminder of what eyelid surgery is ultimately for — and a masterclass in reconstructive thinking from a surgeon who practises it where it matters most.
