$re = '/.*(?<=itemid=)([0-9]{1,2}).*/m';
$str = 'itemid=44\'>Red Flower</a>';
$subst = "_ITEMID_START_\1_ITEMID_END_";
$result = preg_replace($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