Objective To analyze the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with brucellosis in a hospital in Shenyang

and to provide a theoretical basis for the early clinical diagnosis and treatment of the disease and slow the process of it entering the chronic stage. Methods A retrospective study method was used to select 1 039 inpatients diagnosed with brucellosis in a hospital in Shenyang from January 2014 to September 2016 as the research subjects. The clinical data of the subjects were collected

summarized and analyzed. Results Possible transmission routes for the research subjects include breeding contact（604 cases）

slaughter contact（52 cases）

contact in dairy-related work（154 cases）

contact in epidemic prevention（27 cases）

and other contacts（155 cases）. Among the research subjects

there were 47 cases with no explicit contact with animals

205 with contact with cattle only

708 cases with sheep only

68 cases with cattle and sheep

and 11 with other animals. The main symptoms of the research subjects were fever（77.9%）

fatigue（67.9%）

hyperhidrosis（49.0%）

and arthralgia（46.9%）. The difference between patients in different clinical stages in terms of the proportion of cases developing fever

arthralgia

low back pain

walking disorders

and liver swelling is statistically significant（P<0.05）. Patients in the acute stage mainly have the symptom of fever

and the incidence of complications is low; patients in the sub-acute and chronic stages mainly have low back pain

and the incidence of complications is high. In addition

the difference in hospital stay of research subjects in different clinical stages was statistically significant（P<0.05）

as the hospital stay of patients in the acute stage was shorter than those in the sub-acute and chronic stages（both P<0.05）. Conclusion Brucellosis has various clinical manifestations. Fever is the main symptom in the acute stage

and low back pain is the characteristic symptom in the sub-acute and chronic stages. The incidence of complications in the sub-acute and chronic phases is high

and spondylitis is the most common one. Early identification of brucellosis-related symptoms and epidemiological investigations can promote early diagnosis and treatment of the disease and slow down the process of it entering the chronic stage.