PITTSBURGH -- Hip pain can be debilitating and extremely painful.

But what if you're too young for hip replacement therapy?

Something can be done about it in Pittsburgh.

Hip replacement is pretty common over the age of 60, but doctors have been reluctant to do the surgery on younger, active baby boomers.

Now there's a new alternative that is showing remarkable success and it has patients back on track in no time.

Kevin Deliman, 49, of Fox Chapel, was extremely active but suddenly found himself in excruciating pain with severe hip arthritis.

Doctors told him he may have to live with the pain until he could have a hip replacement, but then he heard about the Birmingham hip resurfacing procedure that had been done in Europe for years.

Just before Deliman was ready to leave for India to have the surgery, it was approved in the United States and he found out that local doctor, Dr. Ari Pressman at Mercy Hospital. was doing it.

Like a hip replacement surgery, a metal socket is still inserted, but there is a major difference.

Instead of cutting away hip, a piece is capped onto the femur bone and articulated into the hip allowing range of motion.

Within six weeks of surgery, Deliman was running on the treadmill.

And after six months he was playing a little volleyball on the sand court.

Although it is new to the United States, the procedure does have a track record, with 65,000 patients undergoing it in Europe since 1991.