Lyrica is approved to treat nerve pain in diabetes, shingles and pain in fibromyalgia. This doesn't it couldn't help with nerve damage after surgery - drugs are often prescribed for conditions they haven't specifically been approved for. Lyrica works differently than more commonly used pain medication such as narcotics, anti-depressants, etc.
A recent study did find that when knee replacement surgery patients who were treated with Lyrica \just before and after they had surgery had much lower rates (in fact zero!) of neuropathic afterwards (compared to 5% of others).
For some more on Lyrica http://www.healthcentral.com/chronic-pain/find-drug-68370-73.html