Patent ID: 8202212

Claim:
An apparatus for placing on a heart a passive cardiac therapy device circumferentially extending around the heart, the apparatus comprising: a body; a deployment mechanism on the body including a plurality of elongate support members for supporting the cardiac therapy device in an open position for placement on the heart; and a release mechanism coupled to the deployment mechanism for releasably mounting the cardiac support device to the deployment mechanism, the release mechanism comprising: a plurality of elongate release elements adjacent to and slidably movable with respect to the plurality of elongate support members of the deployment mechanism, the release elements having distal ends movable between engaged and released states to releasably engage the cardiac therapy device; a first control mechanism on the body for moving the plurality of elongate support members together with the plurality of elongate release elements; a plurality of second control mechanisms on the body, each second control mechanism of the plurality of second control mechanisms for individually one of the plurality of elongate support members together with one respective elongate element; and a plurality of release actuators coupled to proximal ends of the elongate release elements to actuate the elongate release elements and release the cardiac therapy device from the deployment mechanism.