A way to do it, is to create a perl object directly on top of the C struct using XS. An example:

Create perl object from C struct:

    /* assume "buffer" is a C struct */
    /* assume "package" is a perl string naming the package
       to bless the object in */
    SV* self = newSViv(PTR2IV(buffer));
    SV* ref = sv_bless(newRV_noinc(self),gv_stashsv(package,1));

    /* ref is now a perl object containing a pointer to the "buffer" s
+truct */
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and vice versa:

    if (sv_derived_from(sv, "Expected::Package"))
       buffer_pointer = (buffer_type*) SvIV((SV*)SvRV(perlobject));
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See the perlxstut manpage for an intro into writing XS.

update: ofcourse, you then need to write accessor methods in XS to handle getting/setting struct data. Also, I recommend reading the "Extending and Embedding Perl" book.