Patent ID: 8579963

Claim:
A delivery device for percutaneously delivering a stented prosthetic heart valve, the prosthetic heart valve being radially self-expandable from a compressed arrangement to a normal, expanded arrangement, the delivery device comprising: a delivery sheath assembly defining a lumen and including a distal capsule and a shaft proximal the distal capsule, wherein the capsule is configured to compressively contain an entire length of the prosthetic heart valve; a handle including: a housing defining a proximal side and a distal side, an actuator mechanism maintained by the housing and coupled to the shaft such that the shaft extends distal the distal side, wherein the actuator mechanism is configured to selectively move the shaft relative to the housing; and an outer stability tube coupled to the housing and coaxially received over the shaft such that the shaft is slidable relative to the outer stability tube, wherein a distal end of the outer stability tube is proximal the capsule; wherein the outer stability tube extends over at least a majority of the shaft in distal extension from the distal side of the housing; and further wherein a rigidity of the capsule is greater than a rigidity of the outer stability tube; and further wherein the actuator mechanism is operable to transition the delivery device from a delivery state in which the capsule encompasses an entire length of the prosthetic heart valve and a distal end of the outer stability tube is proximal the capsule to a deployed state in which the capsule is withdrawn from the prosthetic heart valve, the shaft sliding relative to the outer stability tube when transitioning from the delivery state to the deployed state.