Have to loop backward through the DOMnodeList to delete nodes
$comment_anchors = $dom_comment->getElementsByTagName( 'a' );
for ( $i = $comment_anchors->length; --$i >=0; ) :
$comment_anchor = $comment_anchors->item( $i );
if ( trim ( $comment_anchor->nodeValue ) === '' ) :
$comment_anchor->parentNode->removeChild( $comment_anchor );
endif;
endfor;