$re = '/<(h[2-4])>((?:(?!<h\d+\b).)+?)<\/\1>/m';
$str = '<h2>goo</h2> <h4>goo</h2> <h4>goo</h4> <h4>goo\'<>bar</h4>';
$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