[TxMt] Search and replace matching brackets?

I recently had the following problem: I needed to move the contents of my footnotes in a latex document to parentheses in the main text. I.e. search and replace \footnote{......} capturing the contents of the footnote etc. My problem was that \footnote could contain other latex commands, so that it was not possible simply to search using the braces. I needed some way to search and replace using matching braces. Is that possible?

Textmate is very good at working out which close brace goes with which open brace, but as far as I can see that ability is not available when doing a search and replace. Is that right?

Best wishes,

N