Vecuronium bromide, sold under the brand name Norcuron among others, is a medication used as part of general anesthesia to provide skeletal muscle relaxation during surgery or mechanical ventilation.

[6] Vecuronium operates by competing for the cholinoceptors at the motor end plate, thereby exerting its muscle-relaxing properties, which are used adjunctively to general anesthesia.

[medical citation needed] The neuromuscular blocking action of vecuronium is slightly enhanced in the presence of potent inhalation anesthetics.

[8] As long ago as 1862, adventurer Don Ramon Paez described a Venezuelan poison, guachamaca, which the indigenous peoples used to lace sardines as bait for herons and cranes.

Paez also described the attempt of a Llanero woman to murder a rival to her lover's affections with guachamaca and unintentionally killed 10 other people when her husband shared his food with their guests.

[10] A paper published in 1973 discussed the structure-activity relationships of a series of aminosteroid muscle relaxants, including the mono-quaternary analogue of pancuronium, later called vecuronium.

[13] In 2022, Vanderbilt University Medical Center nurse RaDonda Vaught was convicted of two felony charges in the death of a patient who was mistakenly administered vecuronium bromide, rather than the sedative midazolam, also known as Versed.