A manually-powered instrument intended to be used to create a pathway through an occluded blood vessel to facilitate the intraluminal placement of a conventional guidewire beyond a stenotic lesion [especially a chronic total occlusion (CTO) of a coronary artery], prior to further percutaneous intervention to remove the lesion. It typically consists of a long, thin, flexible segment, introduced into the vasculature, that is equipped to mechanically disrupt the lesion (e.g., by blunt microdissection) through manipulation of hand controls at the proximal end. This is a single-use device.