$re = '/\[CDATA\[\[[^]*?]]>/m';
$str = '<records>
<record>
<name>Jon</name>
<surname>Doe</surname>
<dob>2001-02-01</dob>
<comment>
<![CDATA[[ Patient with > 2 and < 5 siblings]]]>
</comment>
</record>
<record>
<name>Jane</name>
<surname>Doe</surname>
<dob>2001-02-01</dob>
<comment>
<![CDATA[[ Patient with > 2 siblings ]]]>
</comment>
</record>
</records>';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($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