Innovations (Germany), Jan. 29, 2007 Texas researchers believe that they have discovered how to prevent many cases of the most common problem encountered by patients undergoing spine surgery: failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS).FBSS occurs when surgery either fails to cure back pain or leads to additional chronic pain after a spinal operation.  In experiments using laboratory rats, neuroscientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) applied the local anesthetic Lidocaine to the animals' exposed spinal cords before subjecting the rats to simulated spinal surgery. They found the procedure prevented both the release of chemicals associated with FBSS and behavior typical of animals experiencing FBSS-caused pain.