An exemplary hand-held, power operated dermatome (100) comprises a blade housing assembly (400), a skin deflector (444), an annular rotary knife blade (300), a cutting plane (702), and a depth gauge (600). Pulling the dermatome across a skin surface while maintaining an acute angle between 30 and 45 degrees between the cutting plane and a skin surface requires at least 30 percent less force than pushing a standard oscillating flat-plane dermatome across a skin surface.
