$re = '/((?:\G|\n)(?:.*?&.*?micro.*?;[\s\S]*?|.*?<.*?micro.*?>[\s\S]*?|.)*?)micro/';
$str = 'micromicro
asdasdmicromicroasdasd
µmicro
µ
&123micro
<123 micro
asdad micro/>
micro123
123micro
µ
<micro>
<asdmicroasdad />
&asdmicro123;
µ
';
$subst = "$1µ";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php