One of the most important neuromuscular blockers property is short onset, allowing early tracheal intubation. Low nondepolarizing blocker dose before the full dose is known to decrease the onset of most neuromuscular blockers. Pipecuronium bromide is a long-lasting aminosteroid with major cardiovascular stability, however, with late onset. This study aimed at evaluating pipecuronium priming effect in adult patients submitted to elective surgeries under general anesthesia.Participated in this study 33 adult patients of both genders, aged 20 to 65 years, physical status ASA I or II, to be submitted to elective surgeries under general anesthesia. Exclusion criteria were patients with kidney or liver failure, neuromuscular diseases, in concurrent use of drugs influencing pipecuronium pharmacokinetics, and patients with family history of malignant hyperthermia. Patients were divided in 2 groups: Group 1 = priming with 0.01 mg kg(-1) and 3 minutes later the remaining 0.07 mg kg(-1) (total 0.08 mg kg(-1)); Group 2 = no priming dose (group control). Neuromuscular relaxation was controlled by acceleromyography (TOF-Guard device) and laryngoscopy was accomplished when T1 < 10%. T test for independent samples was used for statistical analysis and Shapiro Wilks was used to test normality.Groups were homogeneous. Time for T1 < 10% was 161.4 +/- 13.7 seconds for Group 1 and 217.8 +/- 23.4 seconds for Group 2, with p < 0.001 and statistically significant differences between groups.Our results have shown statistically significant differences between groups with and without priming, indicating that pipecuronium also has its onset decreased, similarly to other known neuromuscular blockers.