my $string = qw(ITEM-####);
$string =~ s/#/\d/g;

##</code><code>##

my $string = qw(ITEM-####);
$string =~ s/#/\\d/g;

##</code><code>##

my $esc = qw(\d);
my $string = qw(ITEM-####);
$string =~ s/#/$esc/g;